Evolution of plasma parameters in an Ar-N2/He inductive plasma source with magnetic pole enhancement

Magnetic pole enhanced inductively coupled plasmas （MaPE-ICPs） are a promising source for plasma-based etching and have a wide range of material processing applications. In the present study Langmuir probe and optical emission spectroscopy were used to monitor the evolution of plasma parameters in a MaPE-ICP Ar-Na/He mixture plasma. Electron density （ne） and temperature （Te）, excitation temperature （Texc）, plasma potential （Vp）, skin depth （6） and the evolution of the electron energy probability function （EEPF） are reported as a function of radiofrequency （RF） power, pressure and argon concentration in the mixture. It is observed that ne increases while Te decreases with increase in RF power and argon concentration in the mixture. The emission intensity of the argon line at 750.4 nm is also used to monitor the variation of the ‘high-energy tail＇ of the EEPF with RF power and gas pressure. The EEPF has a ‘bi-Maxwellian＇ distribution at low RF powers and higher pressure in a pure N2 discharge. However, it evolves into a ‘Maxwellian＇ distribution at RF powers greater than 70 W for pure N2, and at 50 W for higher argon concentrations in the mixture. The effect of argon concentration on the temperatures of two electron groups in the ‘bi-Maxwellian＇ EEPF is examined. The temperature of the low-energy electron group TL shows a decreasing trend with argon addition until the ‘thermalization＇ of the two temperatures occurs, while the temperature of high-energy electrons Ta decreases continuously.

Investigation of E-H mode transition in magnetic-pole-enhanced inductively coupled neon-argon mixture plasma

In this paper,E-H mode transition in magnetic-pole-enhanced inductively coupled neon-argon mixture plasma is investigated in terms of fundamental plasma parameters as a function of argon fraction(0%-100%),operating pressure(1 Pa,5 Pa,10 Pa and 50 Pa),and radio frequency(RF)power(5-100 W).An RF compensated Langmuir probe and optical emission spectroscopy are used for the diagnostics of the plasma under study.Owing to the lower ionization potential and higher collision cross-section of argon,when its fraction in the discharge is increased,the mode transition occurs at lower RF power;i.e.for 0%argon and1 Pa pressure,the threshold power of the E-H mode transition is 65 W,which reduces to 20 W when the argon fraction is increased.The electron density increases with the argon fraction at afixed pressure,whereas the temperature decreases with the argon fraction.The relaxation length of the low-energy electrons increases,and decreases for high-energy electrons with argon fraction,due to the Ramseur effect.However,the relaxation length of both groups of electrons decreases with pressure due to reduction in the mean free path.The electron energy probability function(EEPF)profiles are non-Maxwellian in E-mode,attributable to the nonlocal electron kinetics in this mode;however,they evolve to Maxwellian distribution when the discharge transforms to H-mode due to lower electron temperature and higher electron density in H-mode.The tail of the measured EEPFs is found to deplete in both E-and H-modes when the argon fraction in the discharge is increased,because argon has a much lower excitation potential(11.5 eV)than neon(16.6 eV).