Effect of electromagnetic waves and higher harmonics in capacitively coupled plasma phenomena

High-resolution self-consistent numerical simulation of electromagnetic wave phenomena in an axisymmetric capacitively coupled plasma reactor is reported. A prominent centre-peaked plasma density profile is observed for driving frequencies of 60MHz and is consistent with observations in the literature and accompanying experimental studies. A power spectrum of the simulated wave electric field reveals the presence of well-resolved high frequency harmonic content up to the 20th harmonic of the excitation frequency; an observation that has also been reported in experiments. Importantly, the simulation results reveal that the occurrence of higher harmonics is strongly correlated with the occurrence of a centre-peaked plasma density profile.