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Angularly and Spatially Resolved Measurements of the Energy Flux in an RF Plasma Using a Thermal Probe
Author(s) -
Wolter Matthias,
Stahl Marc,
Kersten Holger
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
plasma processes and polymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.644
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1612-8869
pISSN - 1612-8850
DOI - 10.1002/ppap.200931604
Subject(s) - plasma , flux (metallurgy) , materials science , thermal , sputtering , electrode , substrate (aquarium) , energy flux , kinetic energy , atomic physics , electron temperature , langmuir probe , plasma diagnostics , analytical chemistry (journal) , chemistry , physics , thin film , nanotechnology , thermodynamics , oceanography , chromatography , quantum mechanics , astronomy , geology , metallurgy
The total energy flux for an RF plasma (13.56 MHz) has been measured by means of a simple thermal probe. The procedure is based on the measurement of time dependent changes of the probe temperature during the plasma process. A substrate dummy which is thermally isolated and inserted into the plasma at substrate position served as thermal probe which can be moved in vertical and horizontal directions in order to measure the different energy fluxes and their distribution in the reactor vessel. The knowledge of the spatial distribution is important, for example, for coating or sputtering processes. Different contributions to the total energy flux are identified by different orientations of the thermal probe, e.g., if the probe is facing the RF electrode the energy flux is much higher than in the opposite direction. This difference can be addressed to an additional energetic contribution due to secondary electron emission from the powered RF electrode.