AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Plasma Science and Technology Wednesday Sessions
       Session PS1-WeM

Paper PS1-WeM6
Investigation of Plasma-Polymer Interactions for Plasma/Energetic Beam Templating of Materials

Wednesday, November 15, 2006, 9:40 am, Room 2009

Session: Plasma-Surface Interactions II
Presenter: R.L. Bruce, Univ. of Maryland, College Park
Authors: R.L. Bruce, Univ. of Maryland, College Park
C. Dutton, Univ. of Maryland, College Park
G.S. Oehrlein, Univ. of Maryland, College Park
S. Engelmann, Univ. of Maryland, College Park
T. Kwon, Univ. of Maryland, College Park
R. Phaneuf, Univ. of Maryland, College Park
B. Long, Univ. of Texas, Austin
G. Willson, Univ. of Texas, Austin
D.B. Graves, UC, Berkeley
D.G. Nest, UC, Berkeley
J. Vegh, UC, Berkeley
A. Alizadeh, GE Electrics Global Research Center
Correspondent: Click to Email
Plasma processing of nanoscale patterned organic masks can lead to surface and line edge roughening and can also lead to changes in dimensions and properties of completed nanostructures for reasons that are not well understood. Using an inductively coupled plasma chamber, tailored polymers were processed in well-characterized controlled plasmas (O@sub2@, Ar, Ar/C@sub4@F@sub8@) and then analyzed using a number of characterization tools: ellipsometry, atomic force microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Similar polymers (polystyrene, poly(alpha-methylstyrene), poly(para-methylstyrene)) exposed to the same plasma conditions were found to behave very differently in etch yield, rms roughness, and refractive index evolution. Characterization of chemical bonding and composition in the damaged layer of these polymers by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and infrared spectroscopy give insights into the different plasma-polymer interactions in similar polymers. We discuss the different behavior of the polymers in the plasma environment in terms of fundamentally different responses to radiation environments, including cross-linking and scission.