Self-sputtering far above the runaway threshold: an extraordinary metal-ion generator

When self-sputtering is driven far above the runaway threshold voltage, energetic electrons are made available to produce "excess plasma" far from the magnetron target. Ionization balance considerations show that the secondary electrons deliver the necessary energy to the "remote"...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Physical review letters Vol. 102; no. 4; p. 045003
Main Authors:	Andersson, Joakim, Anders, André
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States 30-01-2009
Subjects:	CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS COPPER ELECTRIC POTENTIAL IONIZATION IONS MAGNETRONS PLASMA SPUTTERING SUBSTRATES TAIL ELECTRONS
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	When self-sputtering is driven far above the runaway threshold voltage, energetic electrons are made available to produce "excess plasma" far from the magnetron target. Ionization balance considerations show that the secondary electrons deliver the necessary energy to the "remote" zone. Thereby, such a system can be an extraordinarily prolific generator of usable metal ions. Contrary to other known sources, the ion current to a substrate can exceed the discharge current. For gasless self-sputtering of copper, the usable ion current scales exponentially with the discharge voltage.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0031-9007 1079-7114
DOI:	10.1103/physrevlett.102.045003