KINETIC-ENERGY DISTRIBUTION OF NITROGEN-IONS IN AN ELECTRON-CYCLOTRON-RESONANCE PLASMA

In this article, the kinetic energy distribution of atomic and molecul ar nitrogen ions is reported for two electron cyclotron resonance (ECR ) sources. Methods to reproducibly tune the kinetic energy of ionic sp ecies from 3 eV to 35 eV have been developed in order to produce monoe nergetic ion beams for the demanding requirements of selective energy epitaxy. This article also describes methods to avoid the discontinuou s hysteretic transitions between stable ECR modes. The changes in the ion energy distribution resulting from these abrupt transitions are ch aracterized. (C) 1998 American Vacuum Society. [S0734-2101(98)00704-0] .