AVS 47th International Symposium
    Plasma Science and Technology Monday Sessions
       Session PS-MoM

Paper PS-MoM7
Ion Energy Distributions at the RF-Biased Electrode in an Inductively-Driven Discharge

Monday, October 2, 2000, 10:20 am, Room 311

Session: Plasma-Surface Interactions I
Presenter: I.C. Abraham, Sandia National Laboratories
Authors: I.C. Abraham, Sandia National Laboratories
J.R. Woodworth, Sandia National Laboratories
M.E. Riley, Sandia National Laboratories
P.A. Miller, Sandia National Laboratories
Correspondent: Click to Email
We report the energy distributions of ions striking an rf-biased electrode in discharges in an inductively-driven Gaseous Electronics Conference Reference cell. The rf-bias and inductive power supplies were phase locked to a 13.56 MHz oscillator. Using a mass-and-energy sensitive ion analyzer we examined the ion energy spectra for ions of a variety of masses in discharges containing mixtures of the noble gases Ar, Ne, and Xe. The ions were sampled thru a pinhole in the rf-biased lower electrode. Oscillations of the plasma potential and the rf-bias waveforms on the driven electrode were directly measured to compare to the ion energy spectra. The ion energy distributions, which had a single peak and a width of 3.5 eV (FWHM) when the electrode was not biased, split into double peaked distributions as rf-bias was applied to the electrode. Lighter ions consistently had larger splittings in their energy distributions, with the largest splittings being in rough agreement with the rf potential difference between the plasma and the biased electrode. The influence of ICP coil power, rf-bias power, and pressure were investigated. Measurements of plasma densities and temperatures as well as comparisons to model ion energy distributions will be presented. Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the United States Department of Energy under Contract DE-ACO4-94AL85000.