AVS 46th International Symposium
    Plasma Science and Technology Division Thursday Sessions
       Session PS-ThM

Paper PS-ThM9
Polymer Surfaces Modified Using RF Plasma

Thursday, October 28, 1999, 11:00 am, Room 609

Session: Plasma-Surface Interactions II
Presenter: D.A. Steele, University of Sheffield, UK
Authors: D.A. Steele, University of Sheffield, UK
R.D. Short, University of Sheffield, UK
D. Barton, UMIST, UK
J.W. Bradley, UMIST, UK
Correspondent: Click to Email
The properties of a cold plasma are investigated using Langmuir probes and the resultant surface treatments of polystyrene studied using XPS. A glass walled reactor vessel, powered with a matched RF (13.56 MHz) supply via external excitation coil, is utilized to study the capacitively coupled plasma of argon gas. Plasma and self-bias potentials, densities and electron temperatures are investigated using compensated Langmuir probes over a range of input powers and gas pressures. At a 10W nominal input power and gas pressure of 10 mTorr the plasma has a density of 3 x 10@super 15@ m@super -3@ and an electron temperature of 2.5 eV, with an ion mean energy of almost 30 eV. Under such conditions we rationalize that, in the outermost 20Å of a polystyrene substrate, the energy deposited by ions (2.8 mW cm@super -2@) is an order of magnitude greater than that from the VUV photons. However assumptions of a model system, with a pure argon gas plasma and a polystyrene substrate free from UV absorbing impurities, have been made where the effects of residual air and desorption of water from the reactor walls are neglected. Further studies continue to determine the magnitude of these assumptions on polymer modification so a more accurate model of ion/photon energy deposition can be made.