Paper PS-WeM4
Plasma Energy Partitioning and Influences on Surface Reactivity

Wednesday, October 30, 2013, 9:00 am, Room 104 C

The partitioning of energy within plasma systems is of vital importance to plasma chemistry as it provides insight into reactivity via possible formation and decomposition mechanisms as well as its significant contribution to surface reactivity. Here, such investigations are used to determine the internal and kinetic energies of species within a variety of inductively coupled plasma systems. To obtain this information, optical emission spectroscopy (OES), broadband absorption spectroscopy (BAS), and the imaging of radicals interacting with surfaces (IRIS) technique were utilized to determine species energetics (vibrational, rotational, and translational temperatures). Although comparisons will be made between internal energies of SiF in SiF₄ plasmas and CF in variety of fluorocarbon plasmas, a primary focus will be placed on nitric oxide plasma systems and the associated energies of NO gas species. These data are also correlated to species surface reactivity data, and are used to demonstrate the relationship between internal temperatures and observed surface scatter coefficients (S), which is directly related to surface reactivity (R). One such comparison will be on the strong correlations measured between the vibrational temperatures (Θ_v) of NO and S(NO) as a function of applied plasma power. Such observations allow for unique insight into these plasma systems and the integral role energy partitioning plays in the assessment and understanding of complex plasma chemistry.