Px. Yan et al., AN INVESTIGATION OF THE PULSED PLASMA FOR DEPOSITION OF THIN-FILM MATERIALS, Surface & coatings technology, 102(1-2), 1998, pp. 175-181
A new technology for generating pulsed plasma was developed for the de
position of thin film materials according to the concept of the coaxia
l plasma gun. A model has been developed to describe the generation an
d acceleration of pulsed plasma. Diagnostic measurements were carried
out to understand the basic process of generation of pulsed plasma by
using the electric probes and mass spectroscopy. It was found that the
plasma density and composition strongly depend on the discharging vol
tage and inner-electrode materials. The electron density for a titaniu
m inner-electrode is higher than that for a graphite inner-electrode.
Typical values for the electron density for the pulsed plasma are n(e)
= 10(14) for graphite innerelectrode and 10(15) cm(-3) for titanium i
nner electrode. The electron temperature is T-e = 65 eV. The velocity
of pulsed plasma increases proportionally with discharging voltage. Th
e pulsed plasma mainly consists of two kinds of ions: working gas ions
and inner-electrode ions. The ratio between two kinds of ions depends
on the inner-electrode materials and the discharging voltage. The ion
amounts of the inner-electrode, which has low conductivity, are much
lower than that of working gas and have no relationship with dischargi
ng voltage. However, if the inner-electrode is made of metal materials
with good conductivity, the plasma amounts of two kinds of ions can b
e compared with each other. The pursed plasma-material interaction is
also discussed in detail. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science S.A.