A Study of Plasma parameters in gold sputtering System by Means of Optical Emission Spectroscopy

Abstract

This paper aims at shedding light on investigating the effect of varying plasma parameters of the magnetron sputtering system, the optical emission spectroscopy was used to reach the aime of the paper ; i.e. intensity of spectral Ar-I and Ar-Π lines, electron temperature (Te), electron density (n) with applied (300-700) V, and working pressure (0.5 – 3.5) mbar. The glow discharge plasma was produced by using Ar gas and gold as a sputtering target. The obtained results showed that the relationship between the spectral lines intensity and electron temperature is positive: the increase of them lead to an increase in the applied voltage while density of electron decreases as the applied voltage is increase in the range (350 – 550) V. Moreover, the Ar-I and Ar-Π spectral lines and electron density increased while its electron temperature decreased following the rise of the gas pressure. The increscent in emission intensity and electron density started to enhance or reduce from low pressure to medium and then increased nearly exponentially, while for high pressure no significance change was observed.

Evaluation of Process Damage Induced by Sputtering of Transparent Conductive Oxide Films for Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells

“…1b. 26 Furthermore, there was a difference in the damage penetration depth in the c-Si depending on the discharge voltage. We considered that the colliding energy of oxygen and recoil Ar ions to the c-Si increased as the discharge voltage increased.…”