Low-pressure planar magnetron discharge for surface deposition and nanofabrication

Journal Article · Sat May 15 04:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3431098· OSTI ID:21371155

Baranov, Oleg; Romanov, Maxim ^[1]; Wolter, Matthias ^[2]; Kumar, Shailesh ^[3]; Xiaoxia, Zhong ^[4]; Ostrikov, Kostya ^[3]

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1. National Aerospace University 'KhAI', Kharkov 61070 (Ukraine)
2. Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics, University Kiel, D-24098 Kiel (Germany)
3. Plasma Nanoscience Centre Australia (PNCA), CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, P.O. Box 218, Lindfield, New South Wales 2070 (Australia)
4. Department of Physics, State Key Laboratory of Advanced Optical Communication Systems and Networks, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China)

Current-voltage characteristics of the planar magnetron are studied experimentally and by numerical simulation. Based on the measured current-voltage characteristics, a model of the planar magnetron discharge is developed with the background gas pressure and magnetic field used as parameters. The discharge pressure was varied in a range of 0.7-1.7 Pa, the magnetic field of the magnetron was of 0.033-0.12 T near the cathode surface, the discharge current was from 1 to 25 A, and the magnetic field lines were tangential to the substrate surface in the region of the magnetron discharge ignition. The discharge model describes the motion of energetic secondary electrons that gain energy by passing the cathode sheath across the magnetic field, and the power required to sustain the plasma generation in the bulk. The plasma electrons, in turn, are accelerated in the electric field and ionize effectively the background gas species. The model is based on the assumption about the prevailing Bohm mechanism of electron conductivity across the magnetic field. A criterion of the self-sustained discharge ignition is used to establish the dependence of the discharge voltage on the discharge current. The dependence of the background gas density on the current is also observed from the experiment. The model is consistent with the experimental results.

• OSTI ID: 21371155
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 17; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DEPOSITION
ELECTRIC DISCHARGES
ELECTRON TUBES
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
ELECTRONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EQUIPMENT
FERMIONS
LEPTONS
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MAGNETRONS
MICROWAVE EQUIPMENT
MICROWAVE TUBES
NANOSTRUCTURES
SIMULATION
SURFACES