HARMONICS ANALYSIS OF THE ELECTRON COMPONENT OF RF BULK PLASMAS .2. ELECTRON-DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION AND RELEVANT MACROSCOPIC QUANTITIES IN H-2

In a preceding part of the paper, based on the Fourier expansion technique, a new method was developed to study the electron kinetics in weakly ionized, spatially uniform bulk plasmas of rf discharges in the established periodic state. Starting from the electron Boltzmann equation the Fourier expansion technique has been applied to the partial differential equation system for f and f(A), the isotropic part and the first contribution to the anisotropy of the electron velocity distribution function, where both the distribution parts are the first two coefficients of the Legendre Polynomial expansion of the distribution function. In this part of the paper the new method will be applied to investigate the behaviour of the electron velocity distribution of the rf bulk plasma in molecular hydrogen and, in addition, of main macroscopic quantities. The study of the latter quantities will be possible since these are determined by appropriate energy space averaging over f and f(A), respectively. Thus, a comprehensive harmonics analysis of the electron component of the rf H-2 bulk plasma could be made in a wide rf field frequency range. This includes the determination of the harmonics constributions to the isotropic and anisotropic distribution and to relevant macroscopic quantities as dependent on the field frequency for the mentioned wide rf field frequency range as well as of the phase angles between the different harmonics. It could be proved that the so-called 10-term approximation is sufficient for the description. Further on the periodic alteration of important macroscopic quantities, as mean electron energy, power input from the rf field and power loss in collision processes etc., and their period averages will be investigated in this truncation order. The results obtained are discussed and could be especially interpreted within a physical concept based on a comparison of the rf field frequency with the lumped collision frequency for energy dissipation and that for impulse dissipation.