Dust particle synthesis in N2-CH4 gas mixture capacitively coupled radiofrequency discharge

International audience; This paper deals with the study of the growth kinetics of hydrocarbon dust particles in low pressure N2-CH4 gas mixture radio frequency discharges. The partial pressure of CH4 is about 2% of the gas mixture total pressure (0.9 mbar), and the power varies from 20 to 40 W. The initiation and growth of hydrocarbon particles are followed thanks to the measurement of the self bias voltage, the amplitude of the third harmonic of the discharge current, the electron density and the electron temperature. The microwave resonant cavity technique is used to measure the time evolution of the electron density, while the morphology and the size of the collected powders are studied by the means of Transmission and Scanning Electron Microscopy.