M. Ganciu

Influence of pulse duration on the plasma characteristics in high-power pulsed magnetron discharges

High-power pulsed magnetron discharges have drawn an increasing interest as an approach to produce highly ionized metallic vapor. In this paper we propose to study how the plasma composition and the deposition rate are influenced by the pulse duration. The plasma is studied by time-resolved optical emission and absorption spectroscopies and the deposition rate is controlled thanks to a quartz microbalance. The pulse length is varied between 2.5 and 20μs at 2 and 10mTorr in pure argon. The sputtered material is titanium. For a constant discharge power, the deposition rate increases as the pulse length decreases. With 5μs pulse, for an average power of 300W, the deposition rate is ∼70% of the deposition rate obtained in direct current magnetron sputtering at the same power. The increase of deposition rate can be related to the sputtering regime. For long pulses, self-sputtering seems to occur as demonstrated by time-resolved optical emission diagnostic of the discharge. In contrary, the metallic vapor ioniz...

Production of active species in N2–O2 flowing post-discharges at atmospheric pressure for sterilization

A flowing afterglow of very pure molecular nitrogen at atmospheric pressure with admixture of controlled amounts (from some tens to some thousands ppm) of molecular oxygen is studied. For flows of 40 slm, spectroscopic measurements down the discharge allow us to estimate concentrations in atomic nitrogen and in singlet-S metastable oxygen atoms. With UV emission due to nitrogen oxide, all three reactive agents exhibit sporicidal effects, and their relative role is estimated.

Measurement of ionic and neutral densities in amplified magnetron discharges by pulsed absorption spectroscopy

Resonant absorption diagnostic has been used to estimate densities of neutral and ionic titanium, both in ground and metastable states, in a rf coil amplified magnetron sputtering process. The conventional optical source dc supply has been replaced by a high voltage pulsed power supply to allow absorption experiments onto ionic and neutral species, in a broad range of discharge conditions (500 W are applied onto the magnetron cathode and 0–500 W on the rf coil, for a 30 mTorr argon pressure). The obtained densities are used to compare the magnetron and the amplified discharges. The total ionization degree of the metallic vapor is found to increase from ∼3% in the magnetron regime to ∼24% in the amplified magnetron discharge. The Ti (a5F) neutral metastable density is found to be partially enhanced when the rf coil is power supplied.

The concept of plasma cleaning in glow discharge spectrometry

A plasma cleaning procedure to improve elemental depth profiling of shallow layered materials by glow discharge spectrometry is proposed. The procedure is based on two approaches applied prior to depth profiling, either individually or sequentially. The first approach employs a plasma generated at low power, i.e. a “soft” plasma, for removal of contaminants adsorbed on the surface of the target material. In the second approach, sacrificial material is sputtered under normal conditions, e.g. those used for depth profiling, to clean the inner surface of the anode of the glow discharge source. It is demonstrated that plasma cleaning in glow discharge optical emission spectrometry and glow discharge time-of-flight mass spectrometry improves significantly the spectrum of the target material, particularly at the commencement of sputtering due to stabilisation of the plasma as a result of removal of contaminants. Furthermore, modelling and validation studies confirmed that the soft plasma cleaning does not sputter the target material.

Pulsed intense electron beams generated in transient hollow cathode discharges: fundamentals and applications

For the commercial application of pulsed power, material processing with intense pulsed particle beams is a very interesting subject. Recently, high-voltage (1-70 kV), low-pressure (1-100 Pa) transient hollow-cathode discharges turned out to be sources for pulsed intense electron beam generation suitable for this application. The remarkable parameters of these electron beams-beam currents of 50-1000 A (10-30% of the maximum discharge current) with a high energy component (mean energy of about 0.25-0.75 of maximum applied voltage) of 20-70% of the maximum beam current, power density up to 10 W/cm/sup 2/, beam diameters of 0.1-3 mm, beam charge efficiency of 3-5%-captured the attention not only of the scientific community in the last decade. The electron beam is emitted during the early phases of the discharge, and only weak dependence of the high energetic peak of the beam current was found on the external capacity, which determine the development of the later high-current phases. However, the beam parameters depend on the breakdown voltage, gas pressure, and discharge geometry (including self-capacity). In this paper, the characteristics of the pulsed intense electron beams generated in two configurations-multigap pseudosparks and preionization-controlled open-ended hollow-cathode transient discharges (PCOHC)-are described. Such electron beams already were used successfully in a variety of pulsed power applications in material processing, deposition of superconducting (YBaCuO) and diamond-like thin films, microlithography, electron sources for accelerators, and intense point-like X-ray sources, and some preliminary experiments revealed new potential applications such as pumping of short-wavelength laser active media. These pulsed electron beams could be used further in any kind of pulsed power applications that require high-power density, small or high electron energy, and small-beam diameters.

The characterization of pre-ionization-controlled electron beams produced in open-ended hollow-cathode transient discharges

We measured the parameters of the electron beam produced in a hollow-cathode transient discharge with an open-ended cathode but using a proper pre-ionization. The mean energy of the energetic electron spectrum is 0.6 - 0.76 of the breakdown voltage (18 - 23 kV) and the energetic beam duration is less than 10 ns. The electron beam current is approximately 0.1 of the maximum discharge current (600 - 700 A). The integrated diameter of the x-ray emission spot at beam interaction with Al foils for several tens of thousands of shots was estimated to . The beam parameters are similar to those obtained in a pseudo-spark configuration; however, the FWHM of the beam energy distribution seems smaller for the same breakdown voltages.

Experimental study of a pre-ionized high power pulsed magnetron discharge

This paper is focused on experimental studies of a high power pulsed magnetron discharge stabilized by low current pre-ionization. Time resolved studies were performed for a Cu target by optical emission spectroscopy and electrical measurements for different pressures of Ar buffer gas. Due to the elimination of the statistical delay time and a fast discharge current rise the quasi-stationary state was reached in 6 µs. The quasi-stationary state is characterized by an extremely high and pressure independent discharge current density of ~10 A cm−2 and stable Cu+ and Cu++ emissions. Such fast discharge dynamics permits the magnetron cathode current to be driven with a pulse of duration of the order of a few µs, significantly shorter than in other devices. During this short time, the plasma does not have time to undergo the transition from the glow to the arc discharge even at the extremely high cathode loads met in our case. Different stages of the fast discharge development are identified and the composition of the magnetized plasma as a function of the pressure is discussed in detail.

Study of the transport of titanium neutrals and ions in the post-discharge of a high power pulsed magnetron sputtering device

This paper deals with the diagnostics of a high power pulsed magnetron sputtering device (HPPMS). The HPPMS plasma was spatially and temporally characterized in the post-discharge using optical absorption spectroscopy and Langmuir probe time resolved measurements. A circular titanium target was used, the buffer gas was argon and the pressure was fixed at 4 Pa. The titanium densities (neutrals and ions) were measured by a pulsed resonant absorption spectroscopy technique. We found an ionization degree higher than 0.5. Comparison beetween the experimental results and a simple one-dimensional model of diffusion shows that in these conditions, the transport of neutral and ionized sputtered atoms is mainly controlled by diffusion (ambipolar diffusion for ions).

Determination of titanium temperature and density in a magnetron vapor sputtering device assisted by two microwave coaxial excitation systems

We present an optical absorption diagnostic technique devoted to the simultaneous determination of titanium density and temperature during sputtering of Ti. These measurements were performed in a type of ionized physical vapor deposition reactor, consisting of a magnetron sputtering device assisted by two microwave systems for the ionization of the sputtered vapor of the magnetron. Our goal is to optimize the ionization in this reactor in order to improve the deposition process (film quality, recovery of the layers, etc.) compared to standard magnetron sputtering systems. In order to determine both titanium neutral and ion densities, we have used a titanium hollow cathode vapor lamp powered with pulsed power supply. Measurements were carried out at different positions in the reactor at different pressures (1–15 Pa). We have studied the effect of magnetron current from 100 mA to 2 A and of microwave power from 100 W to 1 kW. At lower pressures, we have shown that the titanium is not thermalized close to th...

HiPIMS Ion Energy Distribution Measurements in Reactive Mode

In this paper, mass spectrometry was used to measure the ion energy distributions of the main species during the sputtering of an aluminum target in a reactive Ar + N2 mixture. Both conventional magnetron sputtering (dc) and high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) were used. It appears that, in the HiPIMS, N+ and Al+ ions are significantly more energetic (up to 70 eV) than in the dc (<;40 eV). Furthermore, the HiPIMS Al+ signal is two orders of magnitude greater than in the dc, and time-resolved measurements indicate that most of the ion flux hits the substrate during the OFF time of the impulse sequence.