Keith Gaff*, Antione Durandet and Rod Boswell

Plasma Research Laboratory, RSPhysSE
The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia
Keith.Gaff@Bigfoot.com

High density plasmas, such as the helicon plasma source, have many advantages as sources for plasma processing and, in particular, plasma assisted activated reactive evaporation. The high ion to neutral flux ratio ensures efficient ionisation of evaporated material and high deposition rates. In systems employing diffusion of the plasma from the source region into a processing chamber, such as the Helicon Activated Reactive Evaporation system (HARE), the magnetic field is a key parameter affecting the ion density and uniformity of the plasma in the processing chamber, and therefore the uniformity and rate of deposition.

In this paper, the authors report the investigation of plasma expansion in the presence of a magnetic field using a Retarding Field Energy Analyser, a Langmuir probe and Energy Selective Mass Spectrometry. The measurement techniques are compared and the effect of changes in the plasma expansion on the quality of the deposited films is discussed.