Monte Carlo simulation of an analytical glow discharge: motion of electrons, ions and fast neutrals in the cathode dark space

Bogaerts, Annemie; Straaten, Mark van; Gijbels, R.

doi:10.1016/0584-8547(94)00117-e

Cited by 97 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 28 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…So, with an experimental value of L/λ of 25 (see Davis and Vanderslice [24]), we can conclude that essentially no ions arrive at the target with energy equal to the applied target voltage. Experiments and simulation on this topic are also described by Bogaerts et al [25] [26]. While the sputter yield is determined by the energy and mass of the ions at the target, the sputtering rate of the target depends on the total power.…”

Section: ( )mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sputter Deposition Processes

Depla

Mahieu

Greene

2010

Handbook of Deposition Technologies for Films and Coatings

124

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sputter deposition is a widely used technique to deposit thin films on substrates. The technique is based upon ion bombardment of a source material, the target. Ion bombardment results in a vapor due to a purely physical process, i.e. the sputtering of the target material. Hence, this technique is part of the class of physical vapor deposition techniques, which includes, for example, thermal evaporation and pulsed laser deposition. The most common approach for growing thin films by sputter deposition is the use of a magnetron source in which positive ions present in the plasma of a magnetically enhanced glow discharge bombard the target. This popular technique forms the focus of this chapter. The target can be powered in different ways, ranging from dc for conductive targets, to rf for nonconductive targets, to a variety of different ways of applying current and/or voltage pulses to the target. Since sputtering is a purely physical process, adding chemistry to, for example, deposit a compound layer must be done ad hoc through the addition of a reactive gas to the plasma, i.e. reactive sputtering. The undesirable reaction of the reactive gas with the target material results in a non-linear behavior of the deposition parameters as a function of the reactive gas flow. To model this behavior, the fluxes of the various species towards the target must be determined. However, equally important are the fluxes of species incident at the substrate because they not only influence the reactive sputter deposition process, but also control the growth of the desired film. Indeed, the microstructure of magnetron sputter deposited films is defined by the identity of the particles arriving at the substrate, their fluxes and the energy per particle.

show abstract

Section: ( )mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sputter Deposition Processes

Depla

Mahieu

Greene

2010

Handbook of Deposition Technologies for Films and Coatings

124

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It is important to remark the significance of including charge-exchange processes, which generates a cascade of fast neutrals atoms that bombard the cathode. [8][9][10] When the gas pressure increases, the behavior of the energy distribution corresponding to the fast neutrals is similar to that of the ions.…”

Section: A Generation Of the Particles That Bombard The Cathodementioning

confidence: 91%

Radial profile of energetic particles bombarding the substrate in a glow discharge

Moreno-Marı́n

Abril

García-Molina

1999

Journal of Vacuum Science &Amp; Technology A: Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We have analyzed in an interrelated way the main processes that occur in a glow discharge system: generation of the energetic particles that strike the cathode, emission of sputtered and reflected atoms from the cathode, and transport of these particles through the plasma, until their eventual arrival to the substrate. As an output of our calculations we have obtained the radial profiles of the energy and the number of particles that reach the substrate, as a function of the geometrical characteristics and pressure of the discharge. Our results show that the main part of the energy deposited in the substrate comes from the reflected gas atoms, in spite of the larger number of sputtered cathode atoms.

show abstract

“…However, when we want to calculate the detailed excitation and de-excitation between the various excited argon and copper levels for the collisional-radiative models (see below), all electrons, also the slow ones, are simulated with the Monte Carlo model, because low-energy electrons can cause de-excitation or excitation to nearby levels. More information about this model can be found elsewhere [23][24][25][26][27].…”

Section: Monte Carlo Model For Fast Electronsmentioning

confidence: 98%