Effects of He and Ar ion kinetic energies in protection of organosilicate glass from O2 plasma damage

Abstract

In-situ x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and ex-situ Fourier transform infrared studies of He plasma and Ar+ ion bombardment pretreatments of organosilicate glass demonstrate that such pretreatments inhibit subsequent O2 plasma-induced carbon loss by forming a SiO2-like damaged overlayer, and that the degree of protection correlates directly with increased ion kinetic energies, but not with the thickness of the SiO2 overlayer. This thickness is observed by XPS to be roughly constant and <1 nm regardless of ion energies involved. The data indicate that ion kinetic energies are an important parameter in protective noble gas plasma pretreatments to inhibit O2 plasma-induced carbon loss.