Study of ion beam sputtering using a glow discharge ion source

Abstract

In this work, sputtering yield in a glow discharge ion source system has been determined using the operating parameters of the ion source. The sputtering yield is found to be varied between 0.4 to 1 atoms removed per incident ion for nitrogen while for argon between 0.2 to 1.3 atoms removed per incident ion. The feature of this ion source is high output ion beam current and small size. Operation of the ion source is quite simple since a stable discharge can be obtained within a large range of main parameters such as, discharge voltage, discharge current and gas pressure. Also, beam profile for argon ion beam produced from the glow discharge ion source at I d = 2, 3 mA (discharge current) using argon gas with different gas pressures has been investigated.