Energy Ar Ion Research Articles

Emission of ions and electrons correlated with soft and hard x-rays evolution from thermal plasma

This paper presents a correlation between time evolution of ions and electrons with soft and hard x-rays emitted from argon plasma. The plasma setup comprises of two copper electrodes connected with a dc power supply. Faraday cups were used to monitor time evolution of ions, to extract their energy, temperature, and flux. Double Langmuir probe was employed to determine electron temperature, energy, and density. To explore time-resolved emission of soft x-rays, PIN photodiodes filtered with 24 μm aluminum, 90 μm Mylar, 80 μm copper, and 10 μm silver have been used. To evaluate temporal evolution of hard x-rays, a scintillator–photomultiplier system was utilized. The plasma was generated using argon gas at atmospheric pressure 760 Torr and constant flow rate 5 L/min at 7, 9, and 11 kV. The flux, energy, and temperature of Ar ions increase with the increase in the operating potential. Soft x-ray signals last much longer (3000 ns) than those of electrons' and ions' signals (300 ns). The plasma operated at 11 kV permits highest emission of ions, electrons, and x-rays. The ions, electrons, and hard and soft x-ray irradiation on silicon wafer exhibited the presence of damaged trails. Ion irradiation showed the presence of latent damaged trails. Electron irradiation caused more damage to the Si surface compared to ion irradiation due to higher flux and density. Soft x-rays had a lesser effect as compared to Si exposed to hard x-rays due to higher energy of the hard x-rays. In the case of hard x-rays irradiated Si, erupted volcano-like structure is formed.

Energy Distribution of Sputtered Atoms Explored by SRIM Simulations

The energy of the sputtered atoms is important to control the microstructure and physical properties of thin films. In this work, we used the SRIM program to simulate the energy of sputtered atoms. We analyzed the energy distribution functions (EDFs) and the average energies of the atoms in different spatial directions for a range of target materials and Ar ion energies. The results were compared to the analytical equations for EDFs derived by Sigmund and Thompson and with experimental data from the literature. The SRIM simulations give realistic EDFs for transition metals, but not for elements lighter than Si. All EDFs show a low-energy peak positioned close to one-half of the surface binding energy and a high-energy tail decreasing as approximately E−2. We analyzed the characteristics of EDFs, specifically, the position of low- and high-energy peaks, FWHM, and the energy tail, with respect to the ion energy and position of the element in the periodic table. The low-energy peak increases with atomic number for elements within each group in the periodic table. Similar changes were observed for FWHM. For the period 5 and 6 elements, additional broad high-energy peaks were observed at emission angles above 45° when sputtered by Ar ions with 300 eV and also in some heavier elements when bombarded by 600 eV and 1200 eV ions. The transition metals in groups 4, 5, and 6 in periods 5 and 6 have the highest average energies, while the lowest average energies have elements in group 11. The results of simulations show that the average energies of sputtered atoms were inversely proportional to the sputtering yield, i.e., the higher the sputtering yield, the lower the average energy of sputtered atoms. We established an empirical equation for transition metals to estimate the average energy of sputtered atoms from the sputtering yield. The angular distribution of the average atom energy depends on the atomic number. Transition metals with 22 < Z < 72 have an anisotropic energy distribution, with the highest average energies in the 40°–70° range. For the elements in group 11, the angular distribution of the average energies is more isotropic.

Surface modification of ITER-like mirrors after one hundred cleaning cycles using radio-frequency plasma

In ITER, the metallic first mirrors (FMs) will undergo erosion due to their proximity to the fusion plasma and deposition of materials originated from the first walls (mainly beryllium). In-situ plasma cleaning is a promising technique to conserve the FMs optical properties by means of ion sputtering. In this work, the evolution of the optical properties of single-crystal (Sc) and nanocrystalline (Nc) molybdenum (Mo) and rhodium (Rh) mirrors were investigated up to 100 cycles of consecutive contamination and cleaning. Aluminum oxide (Al2O3) was used as contaminant to replace the toxic beryllium. The plasma cleaning was carried out using a capacitively coupled argon (Ar) plasma excited by a 60 MHz radio-frequency generator resulting in the formation of a self-bias applied on the mirrors of -280 V. The plasma potential being around 30 V, the Ar ion energy was about 310 eV. The optical properties of the mirrors were assessed using ex-situ reflectivity measurements. Moreover, the surface topography was characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), focused ion beam (FIB) and roughness measurements using atomic force microscopy (AFM). ScMo and ScRh mirrors formerly exposed to 80 successful cleaning cycles using aluminum/tungsten (Al/W) deposits and air storage exhibit drastic changes in their optical properties after being subject to cleaning cycles using Al2O3 as contaminant. Additionally, freshly polished ScRh were exposed to identical cleaning cycles. All Sc mirrors exhibited pits induced by the polishing procedure using diamond paste in addition of mounds/wavy patterns. The carbon incorporated during the polishing process was demonstrated to be responsible for the pitting of the surface. The Nc mirrors preserved their initial reflectivities after up to 100 cycles. The surface topography was systematically characterized and an average erosion rate for NcRh mirrors of about 59 nm per cycle has been estimated from FIB cross-sections. The optical properties of the Nc mirrors showed a superiority in the present study in comparison to the Sc materials due to the influence of their polishing procedures.

Surface modification of pure aluminum via Ar ion bombardment for Al/Al solid-state diffusion bonding

Ar ion bombardment was applied to modify the aluminum surface and a subsequent solid-state diffusion bonding was performed. The effect of Ar ion bombardment on surface conditions and properties was studied to analyze the relationship between surface modification and joint performance. With increase of the Ar ion energy, the surface oxide film was removed and its surface roughness tended to decreased first and then increased. The oxide-free aluminum surface with minimal roughness of 0.61 nm was obtained by 1 keV bombardment while the numerous small dislocation loops uniformly distributed in the aluminum surface structure enhanced the surface hardness. Under high-energy bombardment (>5 keV), the surface became swollen or even porous due to the growth of dislocation loops and Ar bubbles that made the surface rough and embrittled, which deteriorated the microstructure and strength of bonded joints. The well-bonded joint with shear strength of 45.9 MPa was obtained at 1 keV bombardment and diffusion bonding temperature of 450 °C. The specific shear strength of ~60% was higher than that of conventional Al diffusion bonded joints. This work is of significance for the manufacture of well-bonded aluminum microchannel heat exchangers. • Bombardment-induced modification is studied in terms of morphology and structure. • The relationship among bombardment, modification and bonding behavior is discussed. • The evolution of bombarded defects affects the surface hardening and embrittlement. • Well-bonded Al joints are obtained at low temperatures by Ar ion bombardment.

Efficient plasma-surface interaction surrogate model for sputtering processes based on autoencoder neural networks

Simulations of thin film sputter deposition require the separation of the plasma and material transport in the gas phase from the growth/sputtering processes at the bounding surfaces (e.g., substrate and target). Interface models based on analytic expressions or look-up tables inherently restrict this complex interaction to a bare minimum. A machine learning model has recently been shown to overcome this remedy for Ar ions bombarding a Ti-Al composite target. However, the chosen network structure (i.e., a multilayer perceptron, MLP) provides approximately 4×106 degrees of freedom, which bears the risk of overfitting the relevant dynamics and complicating the model to an unreliable extent. This work proposes a conceptually more sophisticated but parameterwise simplified regression artificial neural network for an extended scenario, considering a variable instead of a single fixed Ti-Al stoichiometry. A convolutional β-variational autoencoder is trained to reduce the high-dimensional energy-angular distribution of sputtered particles to a low-dimensional latent representation with only two components. In addition to a primary decoder that is trained to reconstruct the input energy-angular distribution, a secondary decoder is employed to reconstruct the mean energy of incident Ar ions as well as the present Ti-Al composition. The mutual latent space is hence conditioned on these quantities. The trained primary decoder of the variational autoencoder network is subsequently transferred to a regression network, for which only the mapping to the particular low-dimensional space has to be learned. While obtaining a competitive performance, the number of degrees of freedom is drastically reduced to 15 111 (0.378% of the MLP) and 486 (0.012% of the MLP) parameters for the primary decoder and the remaining regression network, respectively. The underlying methodology is very general and can easily be extended to more complex physical descriptions (e.g., taking into account dynamical surface properties) with a minimal amount of data required.

Material removal and surface evolution of single crystal silicon during ion beam polishing

The ion beam polishing techniques for silicon wafers play a key role in the fabrication of optical element. However, the dynamical ion beam polishing process at nanoscale time and space is very difficult to be recorded and observed, which most directly affects the quality of the machined surface. Here, the material removal and surface generation process during ion beam polishing are investigated using atomic simulation. In order to reveal the effects of the Ar ion dose, surface roughness, and Ar ion energy on surface integrity and subsurface damage, the surface topography, stress distribution, material removal rate, and radial distribution function are calculated and analyzed. As a result, the higher ion dose would generate the better machined surface quality, but increases the thickness of the amorphous layer. The initial surface roughness, including hill height and diameter, strongly affects the surface quality, due to the ion implantation depth to fall behind the maximum roughness value. Moreover, the average surface roughness, the material removing rate, and amorphous structure are significantly related to the Ar ion kinetic energy. This work demonstrates the potential of reasonable parameter optimization to prepare the ion beam polishing sample with high precision and few defects for optics applications.

The Influence of Low-Energy Ion-Plasma Treatment on the Surface Morphology of Pt Films with Varying Strength of Crystalline Texture

The surface morphology of 100-nm textured Pt films subjected to ion-plasma treatment (IPT) in argon plasma with an Ar-ion energy of 25–200 eV is investigated using a scanning tunneling microscope. As-deposited films are characterized by close values of the surface roughness and average grain size, but their texture strength are different. It is found that IPTs with an ion energy of 25–65 eV lead to increasing roughness, but the roughness of a film with stronger texture is 25–30% less than for a film with weaker texture. This result is caused by a smaller average grain misorientation angle in the case of stronger texture which results in the slower sputtering of grain boundaries. IPT with an ion energy of 200 eV leads to a decrease in the Pt surface roughness by 25% independently of the Pt texture strength.

Effects of Ar ion irradiation in an ICP discharge on the titanium surface topology

VT1-0 (Russian equivalent of Grade 2) titanium surfaces were modified under argon ion bombardment from the low-pressure inductively coupled plasma (ICP). The ion processing allowed us to prepare various types of structures on titanium with controlled characteristic dimensions at nano- and miscroscale (from tens of nm to 3 µm). The hillock, porous, conical, wall/cell structures as well as their combinations have been obtained. The topology type and the characteristic dimensions of surface features depend on the current density js, Ar ion energy Ei, irradiation fluence Φ (or processing time t), and the sample temperature T during the treatment. The microstructures appear on the surface provided the titanium sample is irradiated at temperatures below 900 °C. The sample temperature was determined by both the average current density (jsav from 0.2 to 20 mA/cm2) and the ion energy (Ei from 150 to 1500 eV). A certain fluence is required for uniform surface coverage with microstructures. We suppose that the titanium surface texturing is a result of a complex interplay of the following mechanisms: sputtering, re-sputtering (shadowing), crystal lattice transformation, accumulation and annihilation of defects, and hypothetically, argon retention.

Characterization of surface modification mechanisms for boron nitride films under plasma exposure

The surface modification of a boron nitride (BN) film by plasma exposure was investigated by means of nanoindentation analyses and molecular dynamics simulations. A μm-thick BN film composed of nanoscale sp3-bonded phases in the turbostratic (sp2-bonded) BN domain was prepared on a Si substrate using a reactive plasma-assisted coating system. Then, the BN films were exposed to an inductively coupled Ar plasma under various bias power conditions. The change of the morphology and mechanical properties in the surface region due to the plasma exposure was evaluated with respect to the dependence on the energy of incident Ar ions (Eion). A nanoindentation test under various contact depths identified the formation of a surface plasma-damaged layer (a few nm thick) where the nanoindentation hardness (HIT) was changed in response to the Ar ion irradiation. A molecular dynamics (MD) simulation predicted also the Eion-dependence of the reconstruction of the sp3-bonded phases in a few nm-thick layer on the surface. The presence of a damaged-layer plays an important role in the mechanical properties of the BN/Si structures.

Temporal evolution on SiO2 surface under low energy Ar+-ion bombardment: roles of sputtering, mass redistribution, and shadowing

Self-organized pattern evolution on SiO2 surface under low energy Ar-ion irradiation has been investigated extensively at varied ion energies, angles of ion incidence, and ion flux. Our investigations reveal an instability on SiO2 surface in an angular window of 40° ̶ 70° and for a comprehensive range of Ar-ion energies (200–1000 eV). Different topographical features, viz. ripples, mounds, and elongated nanostructures evolve on the surface, depending upon the angle of incidence and ion fluence. The results are compiled in the form of a parametric phase diagram (ion energy versus angle of incidence) which summarizes the pattern formation on SiO2 surface. To understand the evolution of observed patterns, we have carried out theoretical estimation, taking into account the synergetic roles of ion induced curvature-dependent sputter erosion and prompt atomic redistribution. It is shown that irradiation-induced mass redistribution of target atoms plays a crucial role in determining the critical angle of ion incidence for pattern formation on SiO2 under the present experimental conditions, whereas the contribution of curvature-dependent sputtering needs to be considered to understand the existence of the angular window of pattern formation. In addition, ion-beam shadowing by surface features are shown to play a dominant role in the formation of mounds and elongated structures at higher ion fluences.

Characterization of surface chemistry of PtFe bimetallic nanoparticles

The aim of this study is to find optimal Ar plasma etching conditions without significantly altering the surface of PtFe bimetallic nanoparticles (BNPs). Various treatment parameters such as acceleration voltage, ion beam current, and etching time are considered in this study. Studies have shown that severe alteration of surface chemical composition is closely related to the energy of Ar ions. High energy (3 keV) Ar cleaning, leads to partial reduction of alloy particles along with decontamination. However, the use of ion energies of 1 keV or lower leads to preferential cleaning with minor alteration of surface chemistry and subsequently allows us to acquire reliable XPS data of PtFe BNPs. Profiling of the NPs revealed that both metal oxides and elemental metals are simultaneously synthesized during dry plasma reduction. PtO is formed at the level of 30 atomic percent in the synthesis procedure, which is due to the influence of oxygen radicals in atmospheric plasma.

Surface and in-depth distribution of sp2 and sp3 coordinated carbon atoms in diamond-like carbon films modified by argon ion beam bombardment during growth

Carbon atom coordination at diamond-like carbon (DLC) film surfaces and in sub-surface regions has been determined nondestructively from high-energy resolved C 1s photoelectron spectra, X-ray induced C KVV Auger electron spectra, and angular-resolved C 1s spectra (ARXPS) aided by maximum entropy method (MEM). The spectra were recorded from hydrogen-free DLC films prepared by a pulsed laser deposition under medium energy Ar ion beam assisted growth. The sp3 and sp2 fractions determined from C 1s and C KVV spectra recorded at the normal emission angle differ substantially. This indicates an inhomogeneous depth-resolved distribution of the fractions. The result is validated by the analysis of angular-resolved C 1s spectra using the MEM approach. In-depth reconstructions of the carbon bonding states show that sp2 coordination is dominant at the surfaces. We found that Ar ion beam assisted growth induces a C sp2 peak beneath the surface. The peak shifts towards the surface and is growing with Ar ion energy. C sp3 hybridization is dominant in deeper layers. The in-depth reconstruction is further supported by the depth-dependent mass density determined from the low-loss electron spectra excited at various primary electron energy. The results are discussed within the subplantation model.

Molecular dynamics study of the effect of substrate temperature and Ar ion assisted deposition on the deposition of amorphous TiO2 films

This paper has investigated the impact of the substrate temperature and Ar ion assisted deposition on the surface structure formation mechanism and the film properties during the amorphous TiO2 thin film deposition process with the molecular dynamics simulation method. The results show that the reduction of the surface roughness happen when the energy of Ar ions assisted is increased or the substrate temperature rises, and also the film density on surface is changed with the increasing of Ar ions energy and substrate temperature. It is also found that the Volmer-Weber (island) growth mode of films is promoted by the lower Ar ion energy and higher substrate temperature when the substrate has an island structure. The assisted Ar ion has power of making a flat surface and increasing the local temperature. Besides, it will influence the growth mode with the change of surface atom mobility. With a high assisted Ar ion energy the Volmer-Weber (island) growth mode is inhibited, which will be conducive to the formation of more smooth film surface.

Electron-emission processes in highly charged Ar and Xe ions impinging on highly ordered pyrolytic graphite at energies just above the kinetic threshold

At keV energies, many electronic processes contribute to the emission of secondary electrons in the interaction of highly charged ions on surfaces. To unravel contributions resulting from isolated hollow atoms in front of the surface or embedded in the electron gas of the target, heavy highly charged Ar and Xe ions are collided on highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG). A light target material as HOPG assures straight-line trajectories in the subsurface range. By a systematic change of incidence angle and energy of low-charged Ar and Xe ions, the kinetic electron emission component is determined. Separating out the kinetic energy contribution for the highly charged ions yields pure potential-energy-driven secondary-electron yields. From these yields it is concluded that in contrast to metallic targets, only a small fraction of the secondary electrons stem from above the surface. The lack of above-surface emission is likely due to the semimetallic electronic structure of HOPG. The subsurface emission is found to scale with the increase in binding energy of the inner-shell hole when incrementing the charge state of the projectile Ar or Xe ions.

Comparative study of GaN mesa etch characteristics in Cl2 based inductively coupled plasma with Ar and BCl3 as additive gases

GaN thin film etching is investigated and compared for mesa formation in inductively coupled plasma (ICP) of Cl2 with Ar and BCl3 gas additives using photoresist mask. Etch characteristics are studied as a function of ICP process parameters, viz., ICP power, radio frequency (RF) power, and chamber pressure at fixed total flow rate. The etch rate at each ICP/RF power is 0.1–0.2 μm/min higher for Cl2/Ar mixture mainly due to higher Cl dissociation efficiency of Ar additive that readily provides Cl ion/radical for reaction in comparison to Cl2/BCl3 mixture. Cl2/Ar mixture also leads to better photoresist mask selectivity. The etch-induced roughness is investigated using atomic force microscopy. Cl2/Ar etching has resulted in lower root-mean-square roughness of GaN etched surface in comparison to Cl2/BCl3 etching due to increased Ar ion energy and flux with ICP/RF power that enhances the sputter removal of etch product. The GaN surface damage after etching is also evaluated using room temperature photoluminescence and found to be increasing with ICP/RF power for both the etch chemistries with higher degree of damage in Cl2/BCl3 etching under same condition.

Controlling the electron energy distribution function of electron beam generated plasmas with molecular gas concentration: I. Experimental results

This paper, the first in a series of two, presents experimental results demonstrating the control of electron and ion energy distribution functions in electron beam generated processing plasmas by adding trace concentrations of N2 to an Ar background. Measurements of the electron energy distribution function, f0(E), are performed using a Langmuir probe while measurements of the Ar ion energy distribution function are performed using an energy-resolved mass spectrometer. The experimental results agree with modeling results, described in part II of this work, which indicate that inelastic electron collisions with nitrogen molecules provide an energy sink that can be exploited to control the electron energy distribution function.

Multiple frequency capacitively coupled plasmas as a new technology for sputter processes

A novel large area multiple frequency coupled plasma is introduced for sputter deposition purposes. The discharge is driven by three different excitation frequencies (13.56, 27.12 and 60 MHz) simultaneously for advanced control of Ar ion flux and energy at the target by applying the electrical asymmetry effect during sputter processes.Optical emission spectroscopy is performed to characterize the sputter plasma with respect to plasma parameters as well as the Al transport through the plasma. The spectroscopic data are compared with TRIDYN calculation in combination with a simulation of the transport of atoms through the plasma volume.

Control of Surface Morphology and Magnetic Properties by Ion Bombardment in FePt Thin Films

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Influence of working gas pressure on the performance of W/Si multilayers

The effect of Ar pressure on the performance of W/Si multilayers is investigated. W/Si multilayers were deposited by a high vacuum DC magnetron sputtering system. The Ar pressure was changed from 1.0 to 5.0 mTorr with an interval of 1.0 mTorr during the deposition process. Electron probe microanalysis and Rutherford backscattering are performed to determine the Ar content incorporated within these multilayers. The results demonstrate that less Ar is incorporated within the sample when more Ar is used in the plasma, which could be explained by the increase of the collision probability and the decrease in the kinetic energy of Ar ions arriving at the substrate when more Ar exists. The grazing incident X-ray reflectivity (GIXR) at 0.154 nm is used to determine the structural parameters of the layers. The results show that the structures of these multilayers prepared at different Ar pressure are very similar and that the interface roughness increases quickly when the Ar pressure is higher than 3.0 mTorr. The measurements of the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) reflectivity indicate that the reflectivity decreases when Ar pressure increases. The fitting results of GIXR and EUV reflectivity curves indicate that with an increase of Ar pressure, the density and decrement of the refractive index are increased for W and decreased for Si, which is mainly due to (1) the decrease in Ar content incorporated within these multilayers which affects their performance and (2) the increase of collision probability for sputtered W and Si, the decrease of their average kinetic energy arriving at the substrate, and thus the loosing of their layers.

Interface controlled growth of nanostructures in discontinuous Ag and Au thin films fabricated by ion beam sputter deposition for plasmonic applications

The growth of discontinuous thin films of Ag and Au by low energy ion beam sputter deposition is reported. The study focuses on the role of the film–substrate in determining the shape and size of nanostructures achieved in such films. Ag films were deposited using Ar ion energy of 150 eV while the Au films were deposited with Ar ion energies of 250–450 eV. Three types of interfaces were investigated in this study. The first set of film–substrate interfaces consisted of Ag and Au films grown on borosilicate glass and carbon coated Cu grids used as substrates. The second set of films was metallic bilayers in which one of the metals (Ag or Au) was grown on a continuous film of the other metal (Au or Ag). The third set of interfaces comprised of discontinuous Ag and Au films deposited on different dielectrics such as SiO2, TiO2 and ZrO2. In each case, a rich variety of nanostructures including self organized arrays of nanoparticles, nanoclusters and nanoneedles have been achieved. The role of the film–substrate interface is discussed within the framework of existing theories of thin film nucleation and growth. Interfacial nanostructuring of thin films is demonstrated to be a viable technique to realize a variety of nanostructures. The use of interfacial nanostructuring for plasmonic applications is demonstrated. It is shown that the surface Plasmon resonance of the metal nanostructures can be tuned over a wide range of wavelengths from 400 to 700 nm by controlling the film–substrate interface.