Decoupling ion energy and flux in intermediate pressure capacitively coupled plasmas via tailored voltage waveforms

Abstract

Abstract The discrete control of ion energy and flux is of increasing importance to industrially relevant plasma sources. The ion energy distribution functions (IEDFs) and net ion flux incident upon material surfaces in intermediate pressure (≈133 Pa, 1 Torr) radio-frequency capacitively coupled plasmas (rf CCPs) are coupled to the spatio-temporal sheath dynamics and resulting phase-averaged sheath potential. For single frequency driven discharges this co-dependence of ion energy and flux on the sheath potential limits the range of accessible operating regimes. In this work, experimentally benchmarked 2D fluid/Monte-Carlo simulations are employed to demonstrate quasi-independent control of the ion flux and IEDF incident upon plasma facing surfaces in a collisional (≈200 Pa, 1.5 Torr argon) rf hollow cathode discharge driven by multi-harmonic (n ⩾ 2) tailored voltage waveforms. The application of variable phase offset n = 5 tailored voltage waveforms affords a significant degree of control over the ion flux Γ A r + and mean ion energy ϵ ̂ A r + , modulating each by factors of 2.9 and 1.6, respectively as compared to 1.8 and 1.6, achieved via n = 2 dual-frequency voltage waveforms. The disparate modulations achieved employing n = 5 tailored voltage waveforms demonstrate a significant degree of independent control over the mean ion energy and ion flux for collisional conditions, enabling access to a wider range of operational regimes. Maximising the extent to which ion energy and flux may be independently controlled enables improvements to plasma sources for technological applications such as plasma assisted material manufacture and spacecraft propulsion.