The role of gas dynamics in operation conditions of a pulsed microplasma cluster source for nanostructured thin films deposition

This study intends to explain the fluid dynamic characteristics of a Pulsed Microplasma Cluster Source (PMCS). An axially symmetric steady state simulation is performed for modeling the real-life three-dimensional unsteady flow of hypersonic helium inside our PMCS. Hypersonic helium flow is simulated using Realizable k – ε turbulent model. We obtained the jet velocity, density, and pressure field inside our PMCS for the conditions considered and discussed them with respect to our experimental observations. We also presented a qualitative discussion on the formation-termination process of this hypersonic jet. In particular, simulation, in agreement with the experiment, indicates that the middle stage of the injection process, where the Mach disk stands close to the ablation target and at the same time the mass flow rate is relatively high, is almost the appropriate time for firing the electric discharge. We simulated the jet-electrode impingement and tracked the trajectory of the ablated carbon clusters, considered as rigid spheres, inside the PMCS. We noticed that the spatial distribution of the clusters inside PMCS is highly conserved during the free expansion of the cluster beam out of the nozzle (in the vacuum chambers) and is recognizable in the deposited carbon film. This indicates that the geometry of PMCS plays a significant role in the uniformity of the deposited film.