Multi-diagnostic experimental validation of 1d3v PIC/MCC simulations of low pressure capacitive RF plasmas operated in argon

The particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collisions (PIC/MCC) simulation approach has become a standard and well-established tool in studies of capacitively coupled radio frequency (RF) plasmas. While code-to-code benchmarks have been performed in some cases, systematic experimental validations of such simulations are rare. In this work, a multi-diagnostic experimental validation of 1d3v electrostatic PIC/MCC simulation results is performed in argon gas at pressures ranging from 1 Pa to 100 Pa and at RF (13.56 MHz) voltage amplitudes between 150 V and 350 V using a custom built geometrically symmetric reference reactor. The gas temperature, the electron density, the spatio-temporal electron impact excitation dynamics, and the ion flux-energy distribution at the grounded electrode are measured. In the simulations, the gas temperature and the electrode surface coefficients for secondary electron emission and electron reflection are input parameters. Experimentally, the gas temperature is found to increase significantly beyond room temperature as a function of pressure, whereas constant values for the gas temperature are typically assumed in simulations. The computational results are found to be sensitive to the gas temperature and to the choice of surface coefficients, especially at low pressures, at which non-local kinetic effects are prominent. By adjusting these input parameters to specific values, a good quantitative agreement between all measured and computationally obtained plasma parameters is achieved. If the gas temperature is known, surface coefficients for different electrode materials can be determined in this way by computationally assisted diagnostics. The results show, that PIC/MCC simulations can describe experiments correctly, if appropriate values for the gas temperature and surface coefficients are used. Otherwise significant deviations can occur.