Sensor for measuring the atomic fraction in highly dissociated hydrogen

Abstract

Atomic hydrogen is a very important constituent for processes ranging from cleaning oxide from GaAs and annealing amorphous silicon to the deposition of diamond. Because the usual techniques for measuring atomic fraction are either expensive and cumbersome to use, or unsuitable for application to highly dissociated hydrogen, a specially designed sensor was developed. Sensor design is based on a diffusion tube with noncatalytic walls, having one end open to the atom source and a catalytic closure at the other end. The sensor is simple and inexpensive to fabricate, and determining atom density is straightforward. Sensor design also inhibits thermal runaway, which occurs when atom density is high enough to impart enough recombination energy to the non-catalytic surface to substantially raise its temperature. While recombination coefficients for such surfaces are very low near room temperature, they increase nearly exponentially with temperature unless actively cooled. With the use of a straightforward calibration scheme to determine the variation in species fraction along the diffusion tube, the atomic fraction at the tube opening is determined. Design strategy, implementation considerations, and calibration method are presented. In addition, data obtained from an atomic hydrogen source are compared to relevant published data.