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Title: The influence of the secondary electron induced asymmetry on the electrical asymmetry effect in capacitively coupled plasmas

Journal Article · · Applied Physics Letters
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4817920· OSTI ID:22218220
; ;  [1];  [2]
  1. Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics, Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 49, H-1525 Budapest (Hungary)
  2. Institute for Plasma and Atomic Physics, Ruhr University Bochum, 44780 Bochum (Germany)

In geometrically symmetric capacitive radio-frequency plasmas driven by two consecutive harmonics, a dc self-bias can be generated as a function of the phase shift between the driving frequencies via the Electrical Asymmetry Effect (EAE). Recently, the Secondary Electron Asymmetry Effect (SEAE) was discovered (Lafleur et al., J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 46, 135201 (2013)): unequal secondary electron emission coefficients at both electrodes were found to induce an asymmetry in single-frequency capacitive plasmas. Here, we investigate the simultaneous presence of both effects, i.e., a dual-frequency plasma driven by two consecutive harmonics with different electrode materials. We find that the superposition of the EAE and the SEAE is generally non-linear, i.e., the asymmetries generated by each individual effect do not simply add up at all phases. The control ranges of the dc self-bias and the mean ion energy can be enlarged, if both effects are combined.

OSTI ID:
22218220
Journal Information:
Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 103, Issue 6; Other Information: (c) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English