Particle flux characteristics of a compact high-field cascaded arc plasma device

A new compact cascaded arc device for plasma-wall interaction study is developed at the Institute of Plasma Physics,Chinese Academy of Sciences.A magnetic field up to 0.8 T is achieved to confine plasmas in a 1.2 m long and 0.1 m diameter vacuum chamber.Gas fluid type analysis in this compact vacuum system was done under high particle flux condition.The gas pressure obtained by calculation was consistent with the measurement result.Continuous argon plasma discharge with ion flux of～0.5×1024 m-2 s-1 is successfully sustained for more than 1 h.The effects of magnetic field configuration,gas flow rate,and discharge arc current on the ion flux to target were studied in detail.     

低能高束流氩离子源的结构及性能

离子源技术是等离子体研究中的一项重要内容,而低能大束流源则是离子源技术研究中的一个重要方向,因为这样的源在离子束刻蚀、离子束溅射镀膜以及荷能粒子与物质相互作用方面都有广泛的应用;本文采用空心阴极空心阳极结构,用热阴极电子发射弧放电驱动并用磁场约束产生等离子体,用曲面发射引出离子束,研制成了氩气放电溅射离子源;研究了灯丝加热电流、弧压对弧流的影响和弧流与工作气体压力对离子束引出的影响规律.离子源的引出电压在0-4.0 kV之间连续可调,最大引出束流为100 mA,束斑面积为φ6.0 cm,以Ti为溅射靶时的最大溅射沉积率为0.45 nm/s,离子源可连续工作160 h.     

Characterization of a microsecond pulsed non-equilibrium atmospheric pressure Ar plasma using laser scattering and optical emission spectroscopy

A non-equilibrium atmospheric pressure argon(Ar) plasma excited by microsecond pulse is studied experimentally by laser scattering and optical emission spectroscopy(OES), and theoretically by collisional-radiative(CR) model. More specifically, the electron temperature and electron density of plasma are obtained directly by the laser Thomson scattering, the gas temperature is measured by laser Raman scattering, the optical emissions of excited Ar states of plasma are measured by OES. The laser scattering results show that the electron temperature is about 1 eV which is similar to that excited by 60 Hz AC power, but the gas temperature is as low as 300 K compared to about 700 K excited by 60 Hz AC power. It is shown that the microsecond pulsed power supply, rather than nanosecond ones, is short enough to reduce the gas temperature of atmospheric pressure plasma to near room temperature. The electron temperature and electron density are also obtained by CR model based on OES, and find that the intensities of the optical emission intensity lines of 727.41, 811.73, 841.08, 842.83, 852.44 and 912.86 nm of Ar can be used to characterize the behavior of electron density and electron temperature, it is very useful to quickly estimate the activity of the atmospheric pressure Ar plasma in many applications.     

直流电弧等离子体点火器射流特性研究

采用光谱仪测量了等离子体点火器出口射流的发射光谱,利用玻尔兹曼曲线斜率法计算了射流的电子温度,并通过电离平衡方程计算了射流气体温度,获得点火器出口射流长度、射流速度、电子温度和射流温度随弧电流及进口氩气流量的变化规律。并分析了航空等离子体电弧射流中是否可使用电子温度来代替射流气体温度。实验表明：弧电流随着进口氩气流量的增大而减小;出口射流长度和速度随弧电流的增大而增大,随进口氩气流量的增大先增大后减小;出口电子温度、电子密度和射流温度随弧电流的增大而升高,随氩气流量的增大而降低。     

Effects of Gas Flow Rate on the Discharge Characteristics of a DC Excited Plasma Jet

A direct current(DC) source excited plasma jet consisting of a hollow needle anode and a plate cathode has been developed to form a diffuse discharge plume in ambient air with flowing argon as the working gas.Using optical and electrical methods,the discharge characteristics are investigated for the diffuse plasma plume.Results indicate that the discharge has a pulse characteristic,under the excitation of a DC voltage.The discharge pulse corresponds to the propagation process of a plasma bullet travelling from the anode to the cathode.It is found that,with an increment of the gas flow rate,both the discharge plume length and the current peak value of the pulsed discharge decrease in the laminar flow mode,reach their minima at about1.5 L/min,and then slightly increase in the turbulent mode.However,the frequency of the pulsed discharge increases in the laminar mode with increasing the argon flow rate until the argon flow rate equals to about 1.5 L/min,and then slightly decreases in the turbulent mode.     

Low Friction-Coefficient TiBCN Nanocomposite Coatings Prepared by Cathode Arc Plasma Deposition

TiBCN nanocomposite coatings were deposited on cemented carbide and Si（100）by a cathode arc plasma system,in which TiB₂ cathodes were used in mixture gases of N₂ and C₂H₂.X-ray diffraction shows that TiB₂ and Ti₂B₅ peaks enhance at low flow rates of C₂H₂,but they shrink when the flow rate is over 200 seem.An increase of deposition rate was obtained from different TiBCN thicknesses for the same deposition time measured by scanning electron microscopy.Atomic force microscopy shows that the surface roughnesses are ¹0 nm and ²0 nm at C₂H₂ flow rates of 0-100 sccm and of 150-300 sccm,respectively.High resolution transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy show that the coatings consist of nanocrystal phases Ti₂B₅,TiB₂ and TiN,and amorphous phase carbon and BN.The average crystal sizes embedded in the amorphous matrices are 200 nm and 10 nm at C₂H₂ flow rates of200 sccm and 300 sccm,respectively.In Raman spectra,the D- and G-bands increase with C₂H₂flows at low flow rates,but weaken at high flow rates.The microhardness of the coatings decreases from 28.6 GPa to 20 GPa as the C₂H₂ increases from 0 sccm to 300 sccm,and the ball-on-disk measurement shows a dramatic decrease of the friction coefficient from 0.84 to 0.13.The reason for the reduced hardness and friction coefficient with the change of C₂H₂ flow rates is discussed.     

Measurement of electron density and electron temperature of a cascaded arc plasma using laser Thomson scattering compared to an optical emission spectroscopic approach

As advanced linear plasma sources, cascaded arc plasma devices have been used to generate steady plasma with high electron density, high particle flux and low electron temperature. To measure electron density and electron temperature of the plasma device accurately, a laser Thomson scattering(LTS) system, which is generally recognized as the most precise plasma diagnostic method, has been established in our lab in Dalian University of Technology. The electron density has been measured successfully in the region of 4.5?×?10(19)m~(-3) to7.1?×?10~(20)m~(-3) and electron temperature in the region of 0.18 eV to 0.58 eV. For comparison,an optical emission spectroscopy(OES) system was established as well. The results showed that the electron excitation temperature(configuration temperature) measured by OES is significantly higher than the electron temperature(kinetic electron temperature) measured by LTS by up to 40% in the given discharge conditions. The results indicate that the cascaded arc plasma is recombining plasma and it is not in local thermodynamic equilibrium(LTE). This leads to significant error using OES when characterizing the electron temperature in a non-LTE plasma.     

Nonequilibrium Atmospheric Pressure Ar/O2 Plasma Jet: Properties and Application to Surface Cleaning

In this study an atmospheric pressure Ar/O_2 plasma jet is generated to study the effects of applied voltage and gas flux rate to the behavior of discharge and the metal surface cleaning.The increase in applied voltage leads to increases of the root mean square(rms) current,the input power and the gas temperature.Furthermore,the optical emission spectra show that the emission intensities of metastable argon and atomic oxygen increase with increasing applied voltage.However,the increase in gas flux rate leads to a reduction of the rms current,the input power and the gas temperature.Furthermore,the emission intensities of metastable argon and atomic oxygen decrease when gas flux rate increases.Contact angles are measured to estimate the cleaning performance,and the results show that the increase of applied voltage can improve the cleaning performance.Nevertheless,the increase of gas flux rate cannot improve the cleaning performance.Contact angles are compared for different input powers and gas flux rates to search for a better understanding of the major mechanism for surface cleaning by plasma jets.     

An in situ monitoring method for PECVD process equipment condition

A key to successful consistent plasma processing is maintaining a consistent process chamber condition over a certain production period. To alleviate the concern, in situ process monitoring sensors are employed to investigate the plasma chamber conditions of both the deposition step with direct plasma and the cleaning step with a remote plasma system. In situ sensors are optical emission spectroscopy (OES), optical plasma monitoring sensors (OPMS), voltage current probes (VI-probes), and self-plasma OES (SP-OES). During the deposition, we perform the monitoring of a plasma condition associated with the applied RF power via OES, OPMS, and a VI-probe. In the chamber cleaning step using a remote plasma system does not allow plasma monitoring through the sidewall because the plasma is not formed in the process chamber, thus we employed SP-OES to monitor the by-product gas chemistry during the chamber cleaning process step. Successful monitoring results with some useful applications, such as arc detection, part failure detection, and cleaning process chemistry analysis, are presented in this paper. The use of in situ sensors with proper combination can help to understand the plasma process better, to achieve more precise control of plasma processing.     

Surface Charging Controlling of the Chinese Space Station with Hollow Cathode Plasma Contactor

A highly charged manned spacecraft threatens the life of an astronaut and extravehicular activity, which can be effectively reduced by controlling the spacecraft surface charging.In this article, the controlling of surface charging on Chinese Space Station(CSS) is investigated,and a method to reduce the negative potential to the CSS is the emission electron with a hollow cathode plasma contactor. The analysis is obtained that the high voltage(HV) solar array of the CSS collecting electron current can reach 4.5 A, which can be eliminated by emitting an adequate electron current on the CSS. The theoretical analysis and experimental results are addressed,when the minimum xenon flow rate of the hollow cathode is 4.0 sccm, the emission electron current can neutralize the collected electron current, which ensures that the potential of the CSS can be controlled in a range of less than 21 V, satisfied with safety voltage. The results can provide a significant reference value to define a flow rate to the potential controlling programme for CSS.     

High-speed VUV spectroscopy for edge impurity line emission measurements in HL-2A tokamak

A 20 cm focal length normal incidence vacuum ultraviolet (VUV_20 cm) monochromator with a fast time response has been developed for measuring edge impurity line emission in the wavelength range of 300–2000 Å on an HL-2A tokamak. An aberration corrected concave holographic grating with 1200 grooves/mm is adopted in the monochromator, which provides a wavelength dispersion of 40 Åmm ⁻¹ . The aperture is f/4.5. A channel electron multiplier is used as a detector. The time resolution of the system is 17 μs. Wavelength calibration of the system has been done by using a hollow cathode light source in the laboratory with helium and argon gases. The obtained signals of helium and argon spectra are very strong since the inner surface of the monochromator vacuum chamber is blackened and the stray light level is then significantly reduced. The optical property of the system has been examined by scanning the width of the entrance and exit slits. The system is then installed at the mid-port of the HL-2A tokamak and typical line emissions from the HL-2A plasma are measured. Time behaviors of edge impurity line emissions are observed with the fast time response system in different plasma confinement regimes, especially in the H-mode discharges. The result shows that the VUV_20 cm system works very well to measure the edge impurity line emissions in the edge localized modes phase of H-mode discharges.     

Analysis of Effects of the Arc Voltage on Arc Discharges in a Cathode Ion Source of Neutral Beam Injector

A hot cathode bucket ion source is used for the EAST(experimental advanced superconducting tokamak)neutral beam injector.The thermal electrons emitted from the surface of the cathode are extracted and accelerated by the electric field formed by the arc voltage,which is applied between the arc chamber of the ion source and the cathode.This paper analyzes the effects of arc voltage on the arc discharge in a hot cathode high current ion source.     

Preliminary results of optical emission spectroscopy by line ratio method in the RF negative ion source at ASIPP

Optical emission spectroscopy (OES) using the trace rare gases of Ar and Xe have been carried out in a radio frequency (RF) driven negative ion source at Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Science (ASIPP), in order to determine the electron temperature and density of the hydrogen plasma. The line-ratio methods based on population models are applied to describe the radiation process of the excited state particles and establish their relations with the plasma parameters. The spectral lines from the argon and xenon excited state atoms with the wavelength of 750.4 and 828.0 nm are used to calculate the electron temperature based on the corona model. The argon ions emission lines with the wavelength of 480 and 488 nm are selected to calculate the electron density based on the collisional radiative model. OES has given the preliminary results of the electron temperature and density by varying the discharge gas pressure and RF power. According to the experimental results, the typical plasma parameters is T_e ≈ 2–4 eV and n_e ≈ 1×10 ¹⁷– 8×10¹⁷ m⁻³ in front of plasma grid.     

Hot Cathode’s Working Voltage Impacts on the Operation of High Current Ion Source

High power ion source is one of the important parts of the neutral beam injection. It produces high energy beam by extracting and accelerating ions from its arc chamber. The hot cathode (filaments) in the arc chamber of the ion source operates in two modes. Operation mode of the cathode has great effect on the stable operation of the ion source. Based on the theory of hot cathode and experimental results, this paper presents the operation results (beam current, arc efficiency) of an ion source with various cathode temperatures (controlled by voltage applied to the cathode).     

Growth and surface morphology of ion-beam sputtered Ti-Ni thin films

Titanium-nickel thin films have been deposited on float glass substrates by ion beam sputtering in 100% pure argon atmosphere. Sputtering is predominant at energy region of incident ions, 1000 eV to 100 keV. The as-deposited films were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and atomic force microscope (AFM). In this paper we attempted to study the surface morphology and elemental composition through AFM and XPS, respectively. Core level as well as valence band spectra of ion-beam sputtered Ti-Ni thin films at various Ar gas rates (5, 7 and 12 sccm) show that the thin film deposited at 3 sccm possess two distinct peaks at binding energies 458.55 eV and 464.36 eV mainly due to TiO₂. Upon increasing Ar rate oxidation of Ti-Ni is reduced and the Ti-2p peaks begin approaching those of pure elemental Ti. Here Ti-2p peaks are observed at binding energy positions of 454.7 eV and 460.5 eV. AFM results show that the average grain size and roughness decrease, upon increasing Ar gas rate, from 2.90 μm to 0.096 μm and from 16.285 nm to 1.169 nm, respectively.     

Parametric Study on Arc Behavior of Magnetically Diffused Arc

A model coupling the plasma with a cathode body is applied in the simulation of the diffuse state of a magnetically rotating arc.Four parametric studies are performed:on the external axial magnetic field (AMF),on the cathode shape,on the total current and on the inlet gas velocity.The numerical results show that:the cathode attachment focuses in the center of the cathode tip with zero AMF and gradually shifts off the axis with the increase of AMF;a larger cathode conical angle corresponds to a cathode arc attachment farther away off axis;the maximum values of plasma temperature increase with the total current;the plasma column in front of the cathode tip expands more severely in the axial direction,with a higher inlet speed;the cathode arc attachment shrinks towards the tip as the inlet speed increases.The various results are supposed to be explained by the joint effect of coupled cathode surface heating and plasma rotating flow.     

Optical Spectroscopic Investigation of Ar/CH_3OH and Ar/N_2/CH_3OH Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jets

Ar/CH3OH and Ar/N2/CH3OH plasma jets were generated at atmospheric pressure by dual-frequency excitations. Two different cases were studied with focus laid on the generation of CN radicals. In one case Ar gas passed through a bubbler with saturated methanol steam but without addition of N2 （Ar/CH3OH plasma）. In the other case N2 passed through the bubbler with saturated methanol steam （Ar/N2/CH3OH plasma）. The optical emission lines of CN radicals have been observed in these two cases of plasma discharges. The addition of N2 can significantly increase the optical emission intensity of CN bands.     

Characteristics of a Cold Cathode Type Penning Source and Low Energy Isotope Separation of High Charge States

Measurements of voltage-, current-and gas flow dependencies of a cold cathode Penning source, using different cathode materials, are reported. The influence of the discharge parameters (arc voltage, arc current, magnetic field and gas flow) on the production of higher charge states was studied. The highest observed charge states were Ar9+ , Kr12+ Xe13+ The cold cathode type Penning source with radial extraction proves to have sufficiently low energy spread to permit isotope separation in the source-magnet field. Results for Ar2+, Kr4+ and Xe7+ as well as emittance measurements are given.     

Scintillating Drift Chambers?the Nature of the Emission Process in Ar/CH4

A mechanism involving optical emission from excited molecular fragments is proposed as the origin of the photon emission from scintillating drift chambers which contain Ar/CH4 mixtures. This explains a spectral feature observed at ~ 4300 ? and also the appearance of spurious photo-electric emission from the cathode wall material.     

Diagnostics of Argon Inductively Coupled Plasma and Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma by Optical Emission Spectroscopy

1. IntroductionArgon plasma has been frequently used for mate-rial processing and film fabrication processes [1l [21 [31.The efficiency of these processes has very close rela-tion with plasma parameters [4][5], such as ion den-sity, electron temperature and ion energy dlstrlbu-tion. Lots of research has been done on the relation-ship between efficiency and availability of materialprocessing and plasma parameters [6][7].Both lCP dlscharge and DBD discharge are newtype plasma systems developed…