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Validation of etching model of polypropylene layers exposed to argon plasmas
Author(s) -
Corbella Carles,
Pranda Adam,
Portal Sabine,
los Arcos Teresa,
Grundmeier Guido,
Oehrlein Gottlieb S.,
Keudell Achim
Publication year - 2019
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.201900019
Subject(s) - argon , etching (microfabrication) , materials science , plasma , plasma etching , ion , surface roughness , irradiation , inductively coupled plasma , reactive ion etching , analytical chemistry (journal) , layer (electronics) , atomic physics , composite material , chemistry , physics , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , chromatography , nuclear physics
Thin layers of polypropylene (PP) have been treated by argon low‐temperature plasmas in an inductively coupled plasma setup. The etched thickness of PP was monitored in situ by means of single‐wavelength ellipsometry. The ellipsometric model of the polymer surface exposed to plasma consists of a UV‐modified layer, a dense amorphous carbon layer because of ion bombardment, and an effective medium approximation layer, which accounts for moderate surface roughness. The etching behavior has been compared to a model based on argon ion beam irradiation experiments. In this approach, surface processes are described in terms of etching yields and crosslinking probabilities as a function of incident fluxes and energies of Ar ions and UV photons. The ion beam model fits well with the plasma etching results.