| AVS 59th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Plasma Science and Technology | Thursday Sessions |
| Session PS-ThP |
| Session: | Plasma Science and Technology Poster Session |
| Presenter: | S.G. Walton, Naval Research Laboratory |
| Authors: | S.G. Walton, Naval Research Laboratory E.H. Lock, Naval Research Laboratory R. Fernsler, Naval Research Laboratory |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Electron beam-generated plasmas are unique type of plasmas generated when high electron energy beam is injected into the gas. The beam preferentially ionizes the gas molecules, thereby producing daughter electrons with energies up to half of the initial beam energy. The daughter electrons, however, quickly lose energy as they collide with gas molecules. Thus, without an external electric field to heat them, the daughter electrons cool and they soon outnumber the beam electrons and the energetic daughter electrons responsible for ionization. The low-energy “plasma” electrons are not only far more populous, but also largely determine the plasma characteristics – i.e. the plasma density ne, plasma potential fp, and electron temperature Te. Typically Te is 1 eV or less in beam-produced plasmas and thus the kinetic energy of the ions bombarding the surface is below the polymer bond energies. In this talk we estimate the charged, excited and resonant species concentrations and the fluxes bombarding the polymer surface. We correlate the ion to radical ratios in different gas environments with observed morphological and chemical modifications in polystyrene, poly(methyl methacrylate) and polyethylene. This work was supported by Naval Research Laboratory Base Program.