Abstract
We report the effect of single and dual radio frequency (RF) plasma discharge on the composition and dynamics of a titanium plasma plume produced in a plasma-enhanced pulsed laser deposition (PE-PLD) system. The study was carried out in a nitrogen environment at different pressures. Time-resolved images, optical emission spectroscopy, and interferometry were employed to analyze the plasma. We were able to fit time-resolved images using different expansion models, obtained an expansion velocity between 6 and 30 × 103 m/s. Emission lines from N II, Ti II, were observed by changing the pressure and RF conditions. An increase in emission line intensity from N II was observed by increasing the pressure and RF power. We used Ti II lines to estimate the plasma temperature by using the Boltzmann equation, and we obtained the density from the Ti II line (454.9 nm) through Stark broadening. In addition, a Mach-Zehnder interferometer was employed to make a two-dimensional map of the electron density at early times. The estimated temperatures and densities are between 0.8 and 2.0 eV and 1017 – 1018 cm−3, respectively. The results suggest that increasing RF power enhanced the Ti-N atoms interaction, which is crucial in titanium nitride film applications.
Highlights
Titanium is widely used in industrial applications where its high resistance to heat and corrosion is valued
PLD provides several advantages for depositing thin films compared to the other techniques; the most relevant are a) high stoichiometric reproducibility from the material target into the film. b) Atoms and ions have high kinetic energy when arriving at the substrate, which improves the sticking and superficial mobility, allowing deposition with less temperature than other techniques and c) the thickness can be controlled by the number of pulses or laser fluence [13, 14]
The evolution of the plasma structure is seen to be pressure dependent: At 10 mTorr, the lifetime of the plasma plume is short, and the expansion is essentially perpendicular to the target surface due to the long mean free path
Summary
Titanium is widely used in industrial applications where its high resistance to heat and corrosion is valued. Titanium nitride (TiN) is widely employed in semiconductor manufacturing, selective transparent film, high-performance cutting, biocompatible surface, forming tools, and thermal barriers in nuclear fusion and chemical reactors. These applications rely on a wide range of distinctive properties, including hardness, high melting point, high electrical conductivity, and tribological affinity [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. Research of the plasma can play a crucial role in the process of optimizing and controlling the thin films, since knowing plasma parameters, together with the dynamics and composition, it is possible to make correlations with the properties of the grown films
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