Time-resolved ion flux, electron temperature and plasma density measurements in a pulsed Ar plasma using a capacitively coupled planar probe

Darnon, Maxime; Cunge, Gilles and Braithwaite, Nicholas St.J (2014). Time-resolved ion flux, electron temperature and plasma density measurements in a pulsed Ar plasma using a capacitively coupled planar probe. Plasma Sources Science and Technology, 23(2), article no. 025002.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/0963-0252/23/2/025002

Abstract

The resurgence of industrial interest in pulsed radiofrequency plasmas for etching applications highlights the fact that these plasmas are much less well characterized than their continuous wave counterparts. A capacitively coupled planar probe is used to determine the time variations of the ion flux, electron temperature (of the high-energy tail of the electron energy distribution function) and plasma density. For a pulsing frequency of 1 kHz or higher, the plasma never reaches a steady state during the on-time and is not fully extinguished during the off-time. The drop of plasma density during the off-time leads to an overshoot in the electron temperature at the beginning of each pulse, particularly at low frequencies, in good agreement with modeling results from the literature.

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