Optical diagnostics of low-pressure quasi-stationary diffuse discharge

Direct ion content measurements in a non-sputtering magnetron discharge

“…The measurements were performed in a special discharge device that is a cusped magnetic trap with a pair of electrodes whose shape replicates the magnetic field lines curvature. The detailed description of the discharge device and the power supply can be found in [5]. The overall experimental setup (top view) is presented in figure 1 together with the inset showing the side view of the main chamber only (not to scale).…”

“…The cathode sheath concentrates 60% of the discharge voltage, so the energy of ions incident at the cathode surface does not generally exceed 50 eV, and the sputtering effect should be negligible [3]. However, the absence of metal species in NSMD so far has been demonstrated only indirectly by optical emission spectroscopy [1,5] and by examining the accumulation of particles inside the samples after plasma processing [1].…”

Formation of low-frequency periodic structures in a pulsed magnetron discharge

“…The electrical parameters of the discharge (current I d and voltage U d ) were recorded by the Tektronix TPS 2024 digital storage oscilloscope. The typical traces of transition from HCIMD to NSMD and then to an arc could be found elsewhere [5].…”

“…Considerable effort is being made to determine the mechanisms of drifting ionization zones appearing in such plasmas, and to gain control over their formation. Our present contribution deals with the investigations of similar effects taking place in quasi-stationary magnetron discharges: high-current impulse magnetron discharge (HCIMD), and low-pressure high-current impulse diffuse discharge (HCIDD), also known as non-sputtering magnetron discharge (NSMD) [4,5]. HCIMD is a highvoltage (up to 1.5 kV), high-current (up to 20 A/cm 2 ), long (~ 1-40 ms) impulse sputtering tool [4].…”

“…The profile of each electrode replicates the magnetic field line curvature, ensuring E•B ≈ 0 along the most part of their surface. Further apparatus details could be found elsewhere [4,5].…”