Modelling of Plasma Surface Interaction

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are used to investigate chemical reactions that take place on surfaces exposed to ion bombardment and neutral radicals extracted from plasmas. Such chemical reactions occur in a nano-meter-scale thin top layer of the material and their characteristics significantly differ from those of ordinary chemical reactions in thermodynamical equilibrium. As applications of MD simulations to microscale fabrication and thin film formation processes, recent MD simulation results on organic polymer etching by hydrogen/nitrogen plasmas and surface diffusion of Si on highly hydrogenated Si surfaces are reviewed