Ion energy and angular distributions in inductively coupled radio frequency discharges in argon

Journal Article · Thu Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.362977· OSTI ID:286312

Woodworth, J R; Riley, M E; Meister, D C; Aragon, B P ^[1]; Le, M S; Sawin, H H ^[2]

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1. Laser, Optics, and Remote Sensing Department, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185-1423 (United States)
2. Department of Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States)

We report measurements of the energies and angular distributions of positive ions in an inductively coupled argon plasma in a Gaseous Electronics Conference Reference Cell. Use of two separate ion detectors allowed measurement of ion energies and fluxes as a function of position as well as ion angular distributions on the discharge centerline. The inductive drive on our system produced high plasma densities (up to 10{sup 12}/cm{sup 3} electron densities) and relatively stable plasma potentials. As a result, ion energy distributions typically consisted of a single feature well separated from zero energy. Mean ion energy was independent of rf power and varied inversely with pressure, decreasing from 29 to 12 eV as pressure increased from 2.4 to 50 mTorr. The half-widths of the ion angular distributions in these experiments varied from 5{degree} to 9{degree}, or equivalently, the transverse temperatures varied from 0.18 to 0.29 eV with the distributions broadening as either pressure or rf power was increased. {copyright} {ital 1996 American Institute of Physics.}

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratory
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 286312
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 80; ISSN JAPIAU; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
ANGULAR DISTRIBUTION
ARGON
ENERGY DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS
HIGH-FREQUENCY DISCHARGES
INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA
ION DENSITY
PLASMA DIAGNOSTICS
PRESSURE DEPENDENCE