Ions Bombardment in Thin Films and Surface Processing

Ions bombardment is very important in thin films and surface processing.The ion energy and ion flux are two improtant parameters in ion bombardment.The ion current density mainly dependent on the plasma density gives the number of energetic ions bombarding the substrate.The self-bias voltage in plasma sheath accelerates plasma ions towards the substrate.RF discharge can increase plasma density and RF bias can also provide the insulator substrate with a plasma sheath.In order to choose and control ion energy,ion density,the angle of incidence,and ion species,ion beam sources are used.New types of electrodeless ion sources(RF,MW,ECR-MW) have been introduced in detail,In the last,the effects of ion bombardment on thin films and surface processing are presented.     

Estimation of the sheath power dissipation induced by ion cyclotron resonance heating

During ion cyclotron resonance heating, the sheath power dissipation caused by ion acceleration in the radio frequency(RF) sheath is one of the main causes of RF power loss in the tokamak edge region. To estimate the power dissipation of an RF sheath in the ion cyclotron range of frequency(ICRF), a 1 D fluid model for the multi-component plasma sheath driven by a sinusoidal disturbance current in the ICRF is presented. By investigation of the sheath potential and ion flux at the wall, it is shown that the larger frequency and lower amplitude of the disturbance current can cause smaller sheath power dissipation. The effect of the energetic ion on the sheath power dissipation depends on the disturbance current. For large amplitude of disturbance current, the increase in the concentration and energy of the energetic ion leads to a decrease in sheath power dissipation. While for a small disturbance current, the sheath power dissipation demonstrates non-monotonic variation with the concentration and energy of the energetic ion. In addition, the sheath power dissipation is found to have a small increase in the presence of light impurity ions with low valence.     

Development of a silver ion source using nanosecond pulses of a Nd:YAG laser at different wavelengths

A silver ion source was designed by focusing the fundamental and harmonics of Q-switched Nd:YAG laser pulses onto a silver target and simultaneously applying an electric potential in an argon environment. The silver ions were detected at a distance of 2 cm from the target surface using a Faraday cup ion probe after letting them pass through a retarding mesh grid (copper electrode). We aim to produce and characterize the silver ions generated by the laser radiation of different wavelengths and pulse energy, ambient gas pressure and the electrode spacing under applied electric field. In addition to this, the effect of laser radiation on plasma under vacuum and at different argon gas pressures was investigated. The velocity distribution function of the plasma emitted from the silver target was investigated under argon discharge. These measurements demonstrated clearly that the velocity distribution function and current signals depend on laser power, laser wavelength and argon pressure. We observed a ten fold increase in the plume current with increase in the applied voltage and ion velocity in the presence of a laser field. The surface morphology of the laser irradiated samples was investigated using reflection optical microscopy.     

Combined Effect of Ion Temperature and Magnetic Field on Collisionless Sheath Structure

A steady state two-fluid model has been used to study the characteristics of the collisionless plasma sheath in the presence of an external magnetic field and by taking into account both the ion temperature and the ion drift velocity at the sheath edge. The number and momentum equations of ions, the Boltzmann distribution of electrons and Poisson equations are solved numerically. The dependence of the Bohm magnetized sheath criterion to ion temperature is examined. It is shown that the ion temperature has significant effects on the sheath characteristics such as ion velocity, charged particles densities and electric potential. In the specific orientations of the magnetic field, it is found that by increasing the ion temperature, the ions do not achieve energy and the kinetic energy of the ions in the depth direction reaches the specific value at bigger distance from the plasma-sheath boundary.     

Sheath Characteristic in ECR Plasma Nitriding

1. IntroductionThe plasma sheath is an important and complexregion for nearly all plasma applications in materials processing. The theoretical and experimental research on the features of sheath is important for making the processing mechanism clear and for selectingthe best processing conditions.The main process Of plasma nitriding has been noal.widely accepted as being dominated b3' the excitednitrogen molecules, ions= and nitrogen atoms [l-41.As to their formation, Aloll [5] thought that i…     

Strong Dependency of Ion Acceleration on Ion Beam Divergency in Magnetized Collisionless Plasma Sheath

The ion acceleration inside the collisionless plasma sheath is investigated at the presence of external magnetic field. By using the fluid model, the number and momentum equations of the ions and the Boltzmann and Poisson equations are solved numerically in the case that the ion beam has a small divergency at the plasma sheath boundary. It is shown that the kinetic energy of the ions has a strong dependency to the magnitude of divergency when the magnetic field has a small component parallel to the sheath boundary.     

Cu and Y ion beams by a new LIS generator

In this work, we present the experimental results of a laser ion source (LIS) implemented for ion accelerators. A KrF excimer laser beam operating at 248 nm was focused on a solid target mounted inside a vacuum chamber in order to obtain the plasma. The laser energy was fixed at 11.5 mJ/pulse. The ion components of the plasma were extracted and accelerated up to 160 keV per charge state by a double gap system formed in two different stages. The beam cross section was circular, 1.5 cm in diameter. Using Cu and Y disks, as laser targets, we produced ion beams containing 1.2 × 10¹¹ ions/pulse (0.7 × 10¹¹ ions/cm²). Applying a total accelerating voltage of 60 kV we obtained an increase in ion dose up to 3.4 × 10¹¹ ions/pulse, (2 × 10¹¹ ions/cm²) for the Cu target and up to 6.3 × 10¹¹ ions/pulse (3.5 × 10¹¹ ions/cm²) for the Y target. The characterization of the plasma was performed using a Faraday cup for the electromagnetic properties, and a pepper pot system for the geometric ones. At 60 kV accelerating voltage and 5.5 mA output current the normalized beam emittance resulted in 0.22 π mm mrad for the Cu target, while under the same accelerating voltage, but with 7.4 mA output current, the normalized beam emittance resulted in 0.14 π mm mrad for the Y target.     

Study on the discharge mechanism and EM radiation characteristics of Trichel pulse discharge in air

The Trichel pulse stage is an unstable stage of negative corona discharge that can also involve electromagnetic (EM) radiation signals. In this paper, the discharge mechanism and radiation characteristics of the Trichel pulse are studied in the needle-plate electrode configuration. The Trichel pulse current and its EM radiation signals are measured at different applied voltages. The results show that Trichel pulse discharge changes from the random pulse stage to the continuous pulse stage as the applied voltage increases. During these different stages, the normalized shape of the Trichel pulses remains unchanged, while the frequency of the EM radiation generated by the discharge remains unchanged. The discharge mechanism and EM radiation characteristics of the Trichel pulse are theoretically analyzed in the different stages. Both the positive ion sheath and the negative ion cloud play key roles in the formation of the Trichel pulse. The EM radiation signal is generated by the rapidly changing Trichel pulse current, and the Trichel pulse current waveform determines the characteristics of the EM radiation signal.     

Kinetic simulation of an electronegative plasma with a cut-off distribution and modified Bohm criterion

A kinetic simulation model has been employed to study the properties of an electronegative magnetized plasma sheath assuming the cut-off distribution of electrons and negative ions. The fundamental kinetic Bohm condition for the electronegative magnetized plasma has paramount importance for the formation of a stationary plasma sheath near the material wall. The presence of an oblique magnetic field in an electronegative plasma affects the ion distribution at the plasma injection side and at the wall. The temperature profile of negative charged particles has a non-uniform distribution, which determines the energy flow towards the wall.     

Energy and flux measurements of laser-induced silver plasma ions by using Faraday cup

Silver(Ag)plasma has been generated by employing Nd∶YAG laser(532 nm,6 ns)laser irradiation.The energy and flux of ions have been evaluated by using Faraday cup(FC)using time of flight(TOF)measurements.The dual peak signals of fast and slow Ag plasma ions have been identified.Both energy and flux of fast and slow ions tend to increase with increasing irradiance from 7 GW cm-2 to 17.9 GW cm-2 at all distances of FC from the target surface.Similarly a decreasing trend of energies and flux of ions has been observed with increasing distance of FC from the target.The maximum value of flux of the fast component is 21.2×1010cm-2,whereas for slow ions the maximum energy and flux values are 8.8 keV,8.2×1012 cm-2 respectively.For the analysis of plume expansion dynamics,the angular distribution of ion flux measurement has also been performed.The overall analysis of both spatial and angular distributions of Ag ions revealed that the maximum flux of Ag plasma ions has been observed at an optimal angle of～15°.In order to confirm the ion acceleration by ambipolar field,the self-generated electric field(SGEF)measurements have also been performed by electric probe;these SGEF measurements tend to increase by increasing laser irradiance.The maximum value of 232 V m-1 has been obtained at a maximum laser irradiance of 17.9 GW cm-2.     

Effect of gas pressure on ion energy at substrate side of Ag target radio-frequency and very-high-frequency magnetron sputtering discharge

The effect of gas pressure on ion energy distribution at the substrate side of Ag target radio-frequency (RF) and very-high-frequency (VHF) magnetron sputtering discharge was investigated. At lower pressure, the evolution of maximum ion energy (E) with discharge voltage (V) varied with the excitation frequency, due to the joint contribution of the ion generation in the bulk plasma and the ion movement across the sheath related to the ion transit sheath time τi and RF period τ_RF. At higher pressure, the evolution of E–V relationships did not vary with the excitation frequency, due to the balance between the energy lost through collisions and the energy gained by acceleration in the electric field. Therefore, for RF and VHF magnetron discharge, lower gas pressure can have a clear influence on the E–V relationship.     

Transient Behavior of Negative Hydrogen Ion Extraction from Plasma

For plasma source,the extraction of negative ions is quite diferent from that of positive ions.To understand the efect of extraction field on plasma,the time-dependent behavior of negative hydrogen ion extraction from a negative ion source has been studied by particle-in-cell simulation in the collisionless limit.The simulations have shown that,due to the diference in dynamics between electrons and ions,the imbalance of the numbers of charged particles occurs in the source,results in the broadening of plasma sheath and the great increase of plasma potential.The resultant high sheath field and the ambipolar electric field in plasma make the negatively charged particles congregate inside the sheath and move toward the extraction outlet.The emission area of negative ions is much smaller than that of the extraction aperture,which is in sharp contrast to the case of positive ion extraction.     

Characterization of high flux magnetized helium plasma in SCU-PSI linear device

A high-flux linear plasma device in Sichuan University plasma-surface interaction(SCU-PSI)based on a cascaded arc source has been established to simulate the interactions between helium and hydrogen plasma with the plasma-facing components in fusion reactors.In this paper,the helium plasma has been characterized by a double-pin Langmuir probe.The results show that the stable helium plasma beam with a diameter of 26 mm was constrained very well at a magnetic field strength of 0.3 T.The core density and ion flux of helium plasma have a strong dependence on the applied current,magnetic field strength and gas flow rate.It could reach an electron density of1.2?×?10~(19)m~(-3)and helium ion flux of 3.2?×?10~(22)m~(-2)s~(-1),with a gas flow rate of 4 standard liter per minute,magnetic field strength of 0.2 T and input power of 11 k W.With the addition of-80 Vapplied to the target to increase the helium ion energy and the exposure time of 2 h,the flat top temperature reached about 530°C.The different sizes of nanostructured fuzz on irradiated tungsten and molybdenum samples surfaces under the bombardment of helium ions were observed by scanning electron microscopy.These results measured in the SCU-PSI linear device provide a reference for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor related PSI research.     

Burst pulses for positive corona discharges in atmospheric air: the collective movement of charged species

Positive corona burst pulses are an unstable pulse mode. They appear in a small range of the onset stage, and their current pulses result from the collective movement of charged species. This paper focused on the connections between these pulses and the collective movement of charged species. The movement of species is divided into four parts with respect to time: the(1) initial growth of species,(2) formation and development of the streamer region and negative ion sheath,(3) dead time(the time interval between the pulses), and(4) rapid re-growth of species.The movement of the species in the four parts and the correspondence with the current pulse were analyzed. The numerical results indicated the following: the rapid rising of the species matched the rising edge of the pulses, the streamer region, and negative ion sheath appeared in the falling edge of the primary pulse, and the rapid re-growth of species matched the re-ignition of the pulses. The results were in qualitative agreement with deductions and experimental observations in the literature.     

真空弧离子源脉冲工作瞬间的放电行为

采用高速摄影和光谱诊断的方法研究了真空弧离子源脉冲工作瞬间的放电行为。拍摄了离子源放电瞬间吸氢电极上阴极斑的形成过程，分析了不同放电电流时阴极斑的发射光谱。实验结果表明，当脉冲工作电流为10^1—10^2A时，真空弧离子源放电区一般只有单个阴极斑，阴极斑的位置在同一次放电中的变化很小；较大的脉冲工作电流有利于提高阴极斑的温度，并最终导致氢离子浓度的增加，但也会使阴极材料的溅射更加严重，造成离子源等离子体品质下降。     

Modelling of electronegative collisional warm plasma for plasma-surface interaction process

An electronegative collisional plasma having warm and massive positive ions, non-extensive distributed electrons and Boltzmann distributed negative ions is modelled for the plasma-surface interaction process that is used for the surface nitriding. Specifically the sheath formation is evaluated through the Bohm's criterion, which is found to be modified, and the variation of the sheath thickness and profiles of the density of plasma species and the net space charge density in the sheath region in addition to the electric potential. The effect of ion temperature, nonextensivity and collisional parameter is examined in greater detail considering the collisional cross-section to obey power-law dependency on the positive ion velocity. The positive ions are found to enter in the sheath region at lower velocities in the collisional plasma compared to the case of collision-less plasma; this velocity sees minuscule reduction with increasing nonextensivity. The increasing ion temperature and collisional parameter lead to the formation of sheath with smaller thickness.     

Ar射频放电特性随时间演化的PIC/MCC模拟

采用等离子体粒子模拟方法(PIC/MCC)方法对一维模型模拟了容性耦合等离子体(CCP)源放电过程中等离子体的动力学行为。在模拟氩气放电的过程中,综合考虑了电子与Ar之间的弹性碰撞、激发、电离以及Ar与Ar+之间的弹性碰撞和电荷交换过程。由模拟结果可知,射频极板附近鞘层区域在极短时间内形成,其厚度随着时间的增加而增厚;而射频极板处的粒子通量随着时间的增加逐渐减小。经过一段时间后,射频极板处平均粒子通量、平均电流以及鞘层平均厚度逐渐趋于平衡。在鞘层区域电流主要由位移电流构成,在等离子体区域电流主要由传导电流贡献。最后讨论了达到平衡态后等离子体密度、电势、电场强度和能量的空间分布情况。     

Analytical Determination of Collisionless Sheath Properties for Triple Frequency Capacitively Coupled Plasma

A triple frequency capacitively coupled plasma(TF-CCP) has been considered to investigate the behavior of the sheath parameters.A self-consistent time-independent collisionless model has been developed.The sheath width and potential are calculated using the present model and compared with those calculated using a single-frequency(SF),a dual-frequency(DF)and a triple-frequency(TF) model for time independent collisionless cases.The sheath motion and sheath potential are found to be larger compared with those of SF and DF CCPs for an inhomogeneous sheath,and that of TF CCP for a homogeneous sheath.The effects of the source parameters,i.e.,current magnitudes,frequencies and phase difference,on the sheath parameters are investigated.The sheath parameters show higher values at higher source currents whereas they decrease with the increase of excitation frequencies.It has also been found that,by the proper choice of source frequencies and phase differences,it is possible to adjust the energy of ions when they hit the electrode.     

Structural changes of Si surfaces by nitrogen implantation using plasma based ion implantation

Nitrogen ion implantation to Si wafers is carried out by a plasma based ion implantation (PBII) and the compositional and structural changes of the Si surfaces are examined as a function of implantation time by energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX), Raman and Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The implantation time is varied from 10 min to 7 h. From the results of EDX measurements, the N concentration is increased with increasing implantation time up to 1 h, but it is not significantly increased at further increase of implantation time. In the Raman spectra, the sharp peak from Si crystal is decreased in intensity and the small peaks from a-Si and/or a-SiN_x appear after N ion implantation. On the other hand, in the FT-IR spectra, a broad peak assigned to Si–N bonds appears after N ion implantation. The result of RBS measurement indicates that the N/Si ratio is approximately 1.3. Judging from these results, it is suggested that a-SiN_1.3 is formed as a surface layer on Si wafer by N ion implantation using PBII system.     

Characteristics of Langmuir Probe in Low Temperature, Weakly Magnetized Plasmas

The systematic Langmuir probe measurements for a weakly magnetized plasma have been carried out in the Linear Magnetized Plasma Device for different magnetic fields. By comparing the ion current density of probes with different sizes, the sheath thickness can be evaluated. It is found that while the ratio of cylindrical probe‘s dimension to ion Larmor radius is not more than 2, the model of probe for non-magnetized plasma is still applicable.