Sheet Plasma Configurations Suitable for Materials Processing

A sheet plasma device can produce a steady state high density plasma with strong density and temperature gradients. These characteristics provide efficient formation of negative hydrogen (H) ions over a wide beam extraction area through the so called electron volume process [1]. The device configuration is suitable for plasma based materials processing. Concentrated plasma flow of the magnetized sheet plasma realizes rapid sputtering of target materials, and the produced flux of sputtered atoms can form thin functional films [2]. The cathode structure injects mono-energetic electron beam into sheet plasma that enables production of specific species of ions, excited neutral atoms and molecules in the produced plasma. A small sheet plasma device has been built to produce H ions, and was utilized to demonstrate the capability of controlling the surface structure of a Si substrate [3].