This paper presents a systematic characterization of pure hydrogen capacitively coupled discharges, produced in a parallel plate cylindrical setup. A two-dimensional, time-dependent fluid model is used to describe the production, transport, and destruction of electrons and positive ions ${\mathrm{H}}^{+},$ ${\mathrm{H}}_2^{+},$ and ${\mathrm{H}}_3^{+},$ at different frequencies (13.56–60 MHz), pressures (0.2–8 Torr), rf applied voltages (50–450 V) and geometric dimensions (1.6–12.8 cm radii and 1.6–6.4 cm interelectrode distances). A good agreement is found between calculation results and experimental measurements for the coupled electrical power, the plasma potential, and the self-bias potential, at various frequencies and rf applied voltages. However, the model generally underestimates the electron density with respect to its measured values. The paper discusses different space-time events, such as the development of double-ionization structures or the occurrence of field inversion and field reversal phenomena. The dependencies on pressure and frequency of the time-average electric field distribution are analyzed and related to the electron displacement within space-charge sheaths. This study is later used to understand the variations of the hydrogen dissociation rate, with changes in discharge operating conditions. The influence of reactor dimensions on the spatial profiles of the plasma potential, the rf electric field, the electron density, and the electron mean energy are analyzed in terms of discharge symmetry. An investigation of the space-time averaged rf electric field variations, with changes in the applied voltage, pressure, and geometric dimensions is carried out. These variations are shown to follow a universal similarity curve, if an adequate normalization is used when plotting the rf electric field as a function of pressure. This innovative representation of rf discharges allows a univocal definition of a reactor working point, for given operating conditions.

This paper presents a systematic characterization of capacitively coupled radio-frequency hydrogen discharges, produced within a parallel plate cylindrical setup at different rf applied voltages (Vrf=50–600V), frequencies (f=13.56–40.68MHz), and pressures (p=0.2–1torr). A two-dimensional, time-dependent fluid model for charged particle transport is self-consistently solved coupled to a homogeneous kinetic model for hydrogen, including vibrationally excited molecular species and electronically excited atomic species. Numerical simulations are compared with experimental measurements of various plasma parameters. A good quantitative agreement is found between simulations and experiment for the coupled electrical power and the plasma potential. The model underestimates the values of the electron density, the self-bias potential, and the H(n=1) atom density with respect to measurements, but agrees with experiment when predicting that all these parameters increase with either Vrf, f, or p. The dissociation degree is about 10−3 for the work conditions considered. Simulations adopt a wall recombination probability for H atoms that was experimentally measured, thus accounting for surface modification with discharge operating conditions. Results show the key role played by the atomic wall recombination mechanism in plasma description.

The process of accurately gauging lifetime improvements in organic photovoltaics (OPVs) or other similar emerging technologies, such as perovskites solar cells is still a major challenge. The presented work is part of a larger effort of developing a worldwide database of lifetimes that can help establishing reference baselines of stability performance for OPVs and other emerging PV technologies, which can then be utilized for pass‐fail testing standards and predicting tools. The study constitutes scanning of literature articles related to stability data of OPVs, reported until mid‐2015 and collecting the reported data into a database. A generic lifetime marker is utilized for rating the stability of various reported devices. The collected data is combined with an earlier developed and reported database, which was based on articles reported until mid‐2013. The extended database is utilized for establishing the baselines of lifetime for OPVs tested under different conditions. The work also provides the recent progress in stability of unencapsulated OPVs with different architectures, as well as presents the updated diagram of the reported record lifetimes of OPVs. The presented work is another step forward towards the development of pass‐fail testing standards and lifetime prediction tools for emerging PV technologies.