Vacuum Arc Plasma Guns and Ion Sources

Abstract:

Vacuum arc plasma can be formed using particularly uncomplicated hardware, providing a means for laboratory scale formation of dense and highly-ionized metal plasma. The simplicity and versatility of the approach has led to its widespread use in recent times for both fundamental and technological applications. When embodied in a plasma gun configuration, the source can provide a valuable tool for plasma deposition of metal and metal-containing thin films, including in plasma immersion configurations. When embodied in an ion source configuration, high current beams of metal ions can be formed, and such beams have found good use for ion implantation and particle accelerator injection. Here we briefly review vacuum arc plasma guns and ion sources, outlining some of the hardware embodiments that have been developed at Berkeley and used for various materials modification applications.

• Periodical: Solid State Phenomena (Volume 107)
• Pages: 63-68
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/SSP.107.63
• Online since: October 2005
• Authors: Ian G. Brown
• Keywords: Ion Implantation, Ion Source, Plasma Deposition, Plasma Gun, Plasma Immersion, Vacuum Arc Plasma

References

[1] R.L. Boxman, P. Martin and D. Sanders, Eds.: Vacuum Arc Science and Technology (Noyes, New York, 1995).

[2] See the Special Issues on Vacuum Discharge Plasmas in IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. These issues contain selected papers from the biennial Int. Symp. Discharges Elec. Insulation Vacuum; (usually in the October issues in odd-numbered years).

[3] See the Proceedings of the International Workshops on Plasma-Based Ion Implantation: J. Vac. Sci. Tech. B Vol. 12 (1994).

[4] G.Y. Yushkov and A. Anders: J. Appl. Phys. Vol. 91 (2002), p.4824.

[5] R.A. MacGill, M.R. Dickinson, A. Anders, O.R. Monteiro and I.G. Brown: Rev. Sci. Instrum. Vol. 69 (1998), p.801.

[6] A. Anders, S. Anders and I.G. Brown: Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. Vol. 4 (1995), 1.

[7] I.G. Brown: in Annual Review of Materials Science, Vol. 28, (Annual Reviews, Palo Alto, 1998).

[8] Rev. Sci. Instrum. Vol. 65 (1994), pp.3061-3139. This journal issue contains a review of vacuum arc ion sources and a collection of papers on this topic by a number of authors from laboratories around the world.

[9] E.M. Oks and I.G. Brown, in The Physics and Technology of Ion Sources, 2nd revised edition, Ed. I.G. Brown (Wiley-VCH, Berlin, 2004) p.257.

[10] See for instance the Proceedings of the biennial conferences on Ion Beam Modification of Materials (IBMM), published in Nucl. Instr. and Meth., and on Surface Modification of Metals by Ion Beams (SMMIB), published in Surf. Coat. Technol.

[11] R. Hollinger, M. Galonska and P. Spaedtke: Rev. Sci. Instrum. Vol. 75 (2004), p.1595.

[12] I.G. Brown, A. Anders, S. Anders, M.R. Dickinson, R.A. MacGill and E.M. Oks: Surf. Coat. Technol. Vol. 84 (1996), p.550.

[13] I.G. Brown and E.M. Oks: IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. Vol. 25 (1997), 1222.

[14] I.G. Brown, X. Godechot and K.M. Yu: Appl. Phys. Lett. Vol. 58 (1991), p.1392.

[15] A. Anders: Surf. Coat. Technol. Vol. 156 (2002), p.3.

[16] S. Anders, S. Raoux, K. Krishnan, R.A. MacGill and I.G. Brown: J. Appl. Phys. Vol. 79 (1996), p.6785.