Abstract
AbstractA combination of laser photo‐detachment and conventional Langmuir probing has been used to obtain the bulk negative ion density in both a DC and radio frequency (RF) sputter magnetron. The argon and oxygen discharges were operated at low powers and over a range of pressures. The photo‐detachment signal is expected to reach a limiting value; however, the signal continues to increase with laser energy density and this can be attributed to a laser ablation effect. In the RF magnetron the electron temperature (Te) in oxygen decreased with increasing pressure, whereas the electron density (Ne) increased from 0.53 to 8.6 × 1014 m−3. At around 12 mTorr, a sudden increase in Ne by 3.7 is accompanied by a small drop in Te. The negative ion density (N−) also increases with pressure reaching a maximum of 1.7 × 1014 m−3 between 5 and 10 mTorr. Under similar conditions, the DC magnetron negative ion fraction (N−/Ne) is estimated to be ∼0.01, being significantly lower than in the RF magnetron where N−/Ne ≈ 1.
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