The Optical Emission Spectroscopy technique was used to monitor a magnetron
discharge working in an Ar/O-2 mixture and in air. Hysteresis effects and
instability, which are frequently observed when working with reactive gases
, were clearly seen in the optical spectra. When the discharge power was in
creased, the atomic oxygen line intensity increased, saturated and then dis
appeared whilst, at the transition, sputtered material line intensities sud
denly increased. In air, nitrogen lines were found to be less sensitive to
this transition. The transition between the two regimes of the discharge is
due to a change in the composition of surfaces from oxidised to metallic,
as confirmed by the analysis of deposited films. In parallel with the exper
iment, a plasma model was developed for the magnetised region of the discha
rge which predicts the variations of the various plasma species in the Ar/O
-2 mixture. This model explains the behaviour of line intensities on the tw
o sides of the transition. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserv
ed.