The effect of N2 flow rate on discharge characteristics of microwave electron cyclotron resonance plasma

Abstract

The properties of plasma in Ar/N2 microwave electron cyclotron resonance discharge with a percentage of N2 flow rate ranging from 5% to 50% have been studied in order to understand the effect of N2 flow rate on the mechanical properties of silicon nitride films. N2+ radicals as well as N2, N+ are found by optical emission spectroscopy analysis. The evolution of plasma density, electron kinetic energy, N2+, N2, and N+ emission lines from mixed Ar/N2 plasma on changing mixture ratio has been studied. The mechanisms of their variations have been discussed. Moreover, an Ar/N2 flow ratio of 2/20 is considered to be the best condition for synthesizing a-Si3N4, which has been confirmed in the as-deposited silicon nitride films with quite good mechanical properties by nanoindentation analyses.

Modeling of plasma chemistry in an atmospheric pressure Ar/NH3 cylindrical dielectric barrier discharge described using the one-dimensional fluid model

“…It is the main way to ionize Ar atoms. 20 The production of Ar þ 2 ions is caused by associative ionization, i.e., both by collision between two metastable Ar à m atoms and by a highly excited Ar ** atom with a ground state Ar atom, as well as by the atomic ion conversion to molecular ion. The loss of Ar þ 2 ions is assumed to occur entirely due to dissociative recombination, which is known to be much more efficient than other recombination processes.…”

“…Penning ionization and step-by-step ionization play a vital role in the discharge. In the Ar * -NH Ã 3 collision process, NH Ã 3 can absorb the energy of Ar * , described as the following Penning reaction: 20 …”

Development and application of network virtual instrument for emission spectrum of pulsed high-voltage direct current discharge

“…The discharge dissociation and excitation of precursor molecules conducted by means of emission spectrum of pulsed direct current (DC) discharge is used to produce gas-phase free radicals and ions. It is a commonly used method requiring simple equipments compared with photolysis, pyrolysis, electron collision and other discharge methods [1][2][3][4][5]. The method has already been widely used to investigate near-infrared, far-infrared, microwave spectra and other optical spectra of free radicals and positive ions in flow systems [6,7].…”

Influence of Pressure and Discharge Voltage on Spectral Intensities in a Pulsed Nitrogen Discharge Supersonic Free-Jet

“…Different discharges were employed to 'activate' nitrogen, including radio frequency discharges [1] , microwave discharges [2,3] , electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) discharges [4] , arc-jet discharges [5] , and hollow anode plasma discharges [6] . A pulsed discharge supersonic free-jet can effectively provide a low-temperature plasma to generate active nitrogen particles in material processing and surface property rectification.…”

“…A pulsed discharge supersonic free-jet can effectively provide a low-temperature plasma to generate active nitrogen particles in material processing and surface property rectification. In recent years it has drawn close attention for the synthesis of new functional materials of nitrogen, such as GaN, CN, InN, SiN x and Ti x Si y N [4,5,7] .…”