Rjmm. Snijkers et al., MASS-RESOLVED ION ENERGY MEASUREMENTS AT THE GROUNDED ELECTRODE OF ANARGON RF PLASMA, Applied physics letters, 63(3), 1993, pp. 308-310
The mass-resolved ion energy distribution (IED) at the grounded electr
ode has been determined in a 13.56-MHz parallel-plate plasma in argon.
The IED is determined of Ar+, Ar2+, Ar2+, ArH+, H3O+, and H3+ for sev
eral plasma conditions. At pressures higher than 10 mTorr, collisions
in the sheath become important. The IED of Ar+ is particularly defined
by charge exchange collisions in the sheath while the IED of the othe
r ions shows only features generated by elastic scattering. This is co
nfirmed by Monte Carlo simulations. The measurements clearly show the
necessity of simultaneous mass and energy separation, rather than the
nonmass-resolved IED reported in the literature.