AVS 56th International Symposium & Exhibition
    Plasma Science and Technology Tuesday Sessions
       Session PS-TuP

Paper PS-TuP14
Study of an Atmospheric Pressure, Pulsed Arc Plasma Jet: Downstream Characterization and its Application to Thin Film Deposition

Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 6:00 pm, Room Hall 3

Session: Plasma Science and Technology Poster Session
Presenter: Y.W. Hsu, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Authors: Y.W. Hsu, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Y.J. Yang, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
C.C. Hsu, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Correspondent: Click to Email
An arc plasma jet operated under atmospheric pressure was studied. This plasma jet is able to generate a stable plasma using a DC pulsed power source of 20 kHz ~ 40 kHz using nitrogen, oxygen, and clean dry air. In this presentation, diagnostic studies of the plasma jet downstream and the use of this jet for metal oxide fabrication will be presented. The plasma jet downstream was characterized using multiple diagnostic tools. The electrochemical sensor was used to quantify the downstream NO/NO2 concentration. Multiple thermocouples were used to directly measure the jet temperature and the optical emission of the jet was monitored by an optical emission spectrometer. Spatial-resolved measurements were performed using the above-mentioned diagnostic tools. The downstream species measurements show that the NO density increased from 5 to 116 ppm and the NO2 decreased from 93 to 52 ppm at 5 cm downstream of the nitrogen plasma jet when the applied voltage increased from 150 V to 350 V under a constant gas flow rate of 45 slm. Jet downstream temperature measurements show that at 1.5 cm downstream of the jet the temperature is approximately 100 °C with 250 V applied voltage and 45 slm. This plasma jet was used for ZnO thin-film deposition. Different precursor injection systems, including a bubbler and an ultrasonic atomizer, were tested. It is shown that the ZnO thin film can be deposited on the glass substrate as confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The deposition rate and the film quality can be optimized by varying the operating parameters. The correlation between the plasma characteristics and deposited thin film properties will be discussed.