Back to Search
Start Over
Carbon atom and cluster sputtering under low-energy noble gas plasma bombardment.
- Source :
- Journal of Applied Physics; Aug2008, Vol. 104 Issue 4, p043305, 12p, 2 Diagrams, 1 Chart, 17 Graphs
- Publication Year :
- 2008
-
Abstract
- Exit-angle resolved carbon atom and cluster (C<subscript>2</subscript> and C<subscript>3</subscript>) sputtering yields are measured during different noble gas (Xe, Kr, Ar, Ne, and He) ion bombardments from a plasma, for low incident energies (75–225 eV). A quadrupole mass spectrometer (QMS) is used to detect the fraction of sputtered neutrals that is ionized in the plasma and to obtain the angular distribution by changing the angle between the target normal and the QMS aperture. A one-dimensional Monte Carlo code is used to simulate the interaction of the plasma and the sputtered particles in the region between the sample and the QMS. The effective elastic scattering cross sections of C, C<subscript>2</subscript>, and C<subscript>3</subscript> with the different bombarding gas neutrals are obtained by varying the distance between the sample and the QMS and by performing a best fit of the simulation results to the experimental results. The total sputtering yield (C+C<subscript>2</subscript>+C<subscript>3</subscript>) for each bombarding gas is obtained from weight-loss measurements and the sputtering yield for C, C<subscript>2</subscript>, and C<subscript>3</subscript> is then calculated from the integration of the measured angular distribution, taking into account the scattering and ionization of the sputtered particles between the sample and the QMS. We observe undercosine angular distributions of the sputtered atoms and clusters for all the studied bombarding gases and a clear decrease of the atom to cluster (C<subscript>2</subscript> and C<subscript>3</subscript>) sputtering ratio as the incident ion mass increases, changing from a carbon atom preferential erosion for the lower incident ion masses (He, Ne, and Ar) to a cluster preferential erosion for the higher incident ion masses (Kr and Xe). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00218979
- Volume :
- 104
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Applied Physics
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 34135409
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2968549