IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Plasma Science Monday Sessions
       Session PS2-MoA

Paper PS2-MoA4
Characterization of Pulsed Plasma Chemistry for the Deposition of Polyethylene Glycol-like Polymer Thin Films

Monday, October 29, 2001, 3:00 pm, Room 104

Session: Plasma Modification of Organics
Presenter: D.C. Guerin, Naval Research Laboratory, National Research Council
Authors: D.C. Guerin, Naval Research Laboratory, National Research Council
D.D. Hinshelwood, Naval Research Laboratory
V.A. Shamamian, Naval Research Laboratory
Correspondent: Click to Email
We have deposited organic thin films with pulsed RF inductively coupled plasmas. We used two organic precursors, isopropyl alcohol and 1,4 dioxane, in argon. We characterized the plasmas with Langmuir probe measurements. Using in situ mass spectrometry, we identified the primary ionized species that diffuse to the surface. These species are different for the two precursors. We propose mechanisms for the creation of these species, which are primarily electron-impact dissociation ionization and ion-molecule reactions. Tuning the plasma parameters varied the mass distributions of the ionic flux to the surface. For example, at low pressure, the species due to electron-impact were predominant. We also used the mass spectrometer to measure the flux of neutral species to the surface. We determined that varying the plasma conditions has a large effect on the relative importance of ions and neutrals in the deposition process. At certain pressures and RF power levels, the flux of reactive neutrals is minor compared to the ion flux, which dominates the deposition process. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was performed on the samples. For isopropyl alcohol, a simple relation was discovered between the ion mass distributions and the chemical bonding character of the deposited film.