Formation and behaviour of nano/micro-particles in low pressure plasmas

Systematic studies on formation and behaviour of particles in low-pressure plasmas have been carried out in silane capacitive high-frequency-discharges developing various in situ particle growth observation methods in the range of their size above sub-nanometres. Studies on charging characteristics of the particles and forces acting on them in the plasmas have greatly contributed to progress in particle growth. All the time evolutions of particle size and density observed until now have a common feature that the particles grow to large ones of micrometres in size through three phases: the initial growth phase up to a nanometre size, the rapid growth phase and the growth saturation phase. The growth in the rapid growth and growth saturation phases can be explained fairly well by the model of coagulation between the negatively charged particles and the positively charged ones of nanometre size. While some issues are still left to be solved, the growth processes in the initial growth phase can be understood by taking into account the relationship between the gas residence time and the growth time for the particles to grow up to nanometre size.