News and Events

WORKSHOP ON RADIO-FREQUENCY DISCHARGES

11 – 13 JUNE 2007
ALL HALLOWS COLLEGE, DRUMCONDRA, IRELAND

WORKSHOP REPORT

Radio-frequency discharges are an important category of plasma source. Their applications include uniquely efficient light sources, critical processes in micro-electronics manufacturing, and spacecraft engines. The world-wide level of interest in these devices is therefore high. Successful exploitation of the diverse applications depends critically on correctly understanding the fundamental physical principles entailed in operating radio-frequency discharges. Understanding these principles involves experimental techniques and theory at the forefront of knowledge.

Between June the 11th and 13th 2007, more than seventy plasma scientists and engineers gathered amid the beautiful surroundings of All Hallows College in Drumcondra for three days of intensive discussions, focusing on outstanding problems in radio-frequency discharge research. Highlights of the proceedings were three keynote talks by acknowledged leaders of the field, Rod Boswell (Australian National University), Valery Godyak (Osram Sylvania) and Michael Lieberman (University of California at Berkeley). The keynote speakers expertly surveyed the field and were followed by topical invited speakers from around the world, including representatives of major industrial laboratories. Each of the invited speakers focused on a problematic area. These presentations excited lively discussion, which continued over meals and indeed in certain local licensed premises after the formal business had ended. Some thirty poster presentations were also made, many of them by research students. Indeed the meeting as a whole was attended by many younger researchers.

At the conclusion, the joint organisers, Miles Turner of National Centre for Plasma Science & Technology (www.ncpst.ie) and Pascal Chabert of Ecole Polytechnique (www.lptp.polytechnique.fr), announced that the meeting had been so productive and successful as to justify a repeat, which will be organised in France in 2009. Many of the participants felt that the meeting had been an outstanding success, and had given the field a new sense of community and direction. There was enthusiasm at the prospect a similar gathering in 2009.