Nickel atom and ion densities in an inductively coupled plasma with an internal coil

Xu, Lin; Sadeghi, N.; Donnelly, Vincent M.; Economou, Demetre J.

doi:10.1063/1.2401659

Cited by 18 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Moreover it was found that the production of metastable titanium atoms as well as the increase of the global gas 4 temperature as the RF power was increased has to be taken into account. Data from other studies are in line with these results [27][28][29]. AAS measurements also showed that the absolute density of Ti atoms was decreased as the target was nitrided [18].…”

Section: Icp Amplified Magnetron Dischargesupporting

confidence: 80%

Reactive ionized physical vapor deposition of thin films

Konstantinidis

Snyders

2011

Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys.

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Abstract.In this article, the experimental results obtained in our laboratory for the last ten years and related to the reactive Ionized Physical Vapor Deposition (IPVD) processes are reviewed. Titanium oxide and titanium nitride thin films were chosen as case studies. The titanium-based thin films were synthesized from a pure titanium target sputtered in a mixture of argon and reactive gas (oxygen or nitrogen). Two IPVD processes were investigated namely i) reactive magnetron sputtering amplified by a superimposed secondary inductively coupled plasma and ii) reactive High-Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS). These researches were dedicated to the understanding of the plasma and plasma-surface interaction chemistries by using advanced plasma diagnostic techniques such as energy resolved mass spectroscopy, time-resolved emission and absorption spectroscopy. The relationships between the plasma chemistry and energetics and the properties of the thin films are emphasized.

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Section: Icp Amplified Magnetron Dischargesupporting

confidence: 80%

Reactive ionized physical vapor deposition of thin films

Konstantinidis

Snyders

2011

Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys.

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“…These experimental points are all set within theoretical curves calculated for T e values of 400 and 500 K. Consequently, all reported copper densities in the following are calculated considering a Doppler temperature of 450 K for the emission from the hollow cathode lamp. This T e is slightly lower than what was considered in our previous works in nickel 26 and in titanium 30 . But in those works, the discharge current in the HCL was also higher and probably the Doppler profiles of the emission lines slightly distorted.…”

mentioning

confidence: 38%

“…Determination of the ground state atoms density by resonance radiation has been developed by Mitchell and Zemansky 16 and since yet the technique has been widely used by several workers 26,28,29,31 . However, in natural copper, two isotopes: 63 Cu (69%) and 65 Cu (31%), with a nuclear spin I= 3/2 for both isotopes, are present.…”

Section: -Resonance Absorptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: -Gas Temperaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Extended discussion on Botzmlann equilibrium in rotational levels by collisional transfers evidenced that in argon plasmas the equilibrium is barely reached and the high rotational levels of the C; v'=0 state always remain overpopulated 25 . To overcome this problem, the 0-0 band can be fitted assuming a two temperature rotational distribution according to the relation 25,26 : To measure the gas temperature, 10% nitrogen is added to the argon feed gas and the N 2 (C 3 Π u -B 3 Π g ) 0-0 band at 337 nm is recorded with the optical detection system described in section 2, by scanning the wavelength of the monochromator. The emission intensity of several argon and copper lines is monitored to ascertain that the introduction of 10% N 2 into argon do not introduce significant perturbation on magnetron discharge.…”

Section: -Gas Temperaturementioning

confidence: 99%

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Measured density of copper atoms in the ground and metastable states in argon magnetron discharge correlated with the deposition rate

Naghshara¹,

Sobhanian²,

Khorram³

et al. 2010

J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.

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Abstract:In a dc-magnetron discharge with argon feed gas, densities of copper atoms in the ground state Cu( 2 S 1/2 ) and metastable state Cu*( 2 D 5/2 ) were measured by resonance absorption technique, using a commercial hollow cathode lamp as light source. The operating conditions were 0.3 -14 µbar argon pressure and 10 -200 W magnetron discharge power. The deposition rate of copper in a substrate positioned at 18 cm from the target was also measured with a quartz microbalance. The gas temperature, in the range of 300 to 380 K, was deduced from the emission spectral profile of N 2 (C 3 Π u − B 3 Π g ) 0-0 band at 337 nm when trace of nitrogen was added to the argon feed gas. The isotope-shifts and hyperfine structures of electronic states of Cu have been taken into account to deduce the emission and absorption line profiles, and hence for the determination of atoms densities from the measured absorption rates. To prevent error in evaluation of Cu density, attributed to the line profile distortion by autoabsorption inside the lamp, the lamp current was limited to 5 mA. Density of Cu( 2 S 1/2 ) atoms and deposition rate both increased with the enhanced magnetron discharge power but at fixed power the copper density augmented with argon pressure whereas the deposition rate followed the opposite trend. Whatever the gas pressure, the density of Cu*( 2 D 5/2 ) metastable atoms remained below the detection limit of 1 x 10 10 cm -3 for magnetron discharge powers below 50 W and hence increased much rapidly than the density of Cu( 2 S 1/2 ) atoms, over passing this later at some discharge power, whose value decreases with increasing argon pressure. This behavior is believed to result from the enhancement of plasma density with increasing discharge power and argon pressure, which would increase the excitation rate of copper into metastable states. At fixed pressure, the deposition rate followed the same trend than the total density of copper atoms in the ground and metastable states. Two important conclusions of this work are: i) copper atoms sputtered from the target under ion bombardment are almost all in the ground state Cu( 2 S 1/2 ) and hence in the plasma volume they can be excited into the metastable states; ii) all atoms in the long-lived ground and metastable states contributes to the deposition of copper layer on the substrate.a Corresponding author ; E-mail : nader.sadeghi@ujf-grenoble.fr 2 1-IntroductionMagnetron discharges are widely used for thin film deposition in surface treatment 1, 2 , magnetic and superconducting devices 3 , semiconductor industry 4 and in surface coating engineering of materials under low temperature conditions 5,6 . In these systems, the magnetic field, usually produced by placing permanent magnets behind the cathode, confines the plasma in the near cathode region, reducing the electron loss to the sidewalls. By increasing the ionization rate near the cathode, which is also the target to be sputtered, its confinement helps to maintain the plasma at much lower buffer gas pressure than...

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