Monte Carlo simulation of avalanche formation and streamer discharge

Streamer discharges play a central role in the electrical breakdown of matter, both in nature and in technology, therefore accurate modeling and simulation of streamers are of high interest, and an insight is needed into the physics of streamer formation and propagation processes. This paper describes the formulation of a Monte Carlo model, which is capable of describing electron dynamics in air. This simulation is carried out in air in uniform electrical fields; we have investigated the effect of the photoionization, which is important in air and poses a major numerical challenge, and the technique also accounts for the effect of the rapid spatial and temporal space charge variations.     

Transport of sputtered atoms investigated by Monte Carlo method

Increasing attention has been paid to the sputtering process as a tool to deposit films and to the study of the interaction between the film properties and the deposition parameters. It is obvious that the energy and direction of these particles arriving at the substrate is in close relation with the transport process from the target to the substrate. This work deals with the computer simulation of the sputtered Ag atoms trajectories through the background gas in a diode-sputtering configuration. For that, we have developed a numerical model to simulate the transport process. We followed the three-dimensional trajectory of each sputtered atom separately and calculated the scattering angle and the energy loss if a collision took place. A statistical method, Monte Carlo simulations is used. The model predicts the flux of Ag atoms arriving at the substrate, their energies and angular distribution. The dependence of the deposition rates of Ag atoms on the gas pressure and the distance between target to substrate were investigated.     

Monte Carlo simulation of radio‐frequency plasmas in N2

The structure of radio‐frequency (rf) discharges in N₂ is examined for the electrons and positive ions, in which electron–neutral collisions and ion–neutral collisions are taken into consideration. Some detailed properties of rf plasmas sustained by an rf source voltage of 13.56 MHz and an amplitude of 200 V are presented using Monte Carlo simulation in electropositive gas (N₂). It is shown that most of the rf external electric field is absorbed in the sheath regions, whereas electrons respond easily to the oscillating rf electric field, ions cannot oscillate with the rf electric field. The oscillations of the electron cloud determine the instantaneous sheath thickness near each electrode. The mean energy and the density of charged particles are also discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Monte Carlo simulation of electrical corona discharge in air

Electrical discharges play a key role in technologies; there are many industrial applications where the corona discharge is used. Air as insulator is probably the best compromise solution for many applications. All of this reflects on the great importance of the evaluation of the corona performance characteristics. Numerical simulation of the corona discharge helps to better understand the involved phenomena and optimize the corona devices. This paper is aimed at calculating the corona discharge in negative point-plane air gaps. To describe the non-equilibrium behavior of the electronic avalanches and to simulate the development of corona discharge the method of Monte Carlo has been used. This model provides the spatial-temporal local field and particles charged densities variations as well as the ionization front velocity.