Electric field distribution in plasma during ion extraction by a radio frequency

resonance method
Tetsuya Matsui, Shinji Tsuda, Kazuki Tsuchida, Kazumichi Suzuki, and Tatsuo Shoji

Citation: Physics of Plasmas 4, 3527 (1997); doi: 10.1063/1.872249

View online: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.872249
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/php/4/10
Published by the American Institute of Physics

Articles you may be interested in

Ion extraction characteristics by an electric field on laser-produced barium plasma
Journal of Applied Physics 67, 6734 (1990); 10.1063/1.345111
Electric field distribution in plasma during ion extraction by a radio
frequency resonance method
Tetsuya Matsui, Shinji Tsuda, and Kazuki Tsuchida
Hitachi Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd., 7-1-1 Omika, Hitachi, Ibaraki 319-12, Japan
Kazumichi Suzuki
Hitachi Works, Hitachi, Ltd., 3-1-1 Saiwai, Hitachi, Ibaraki 316, Japan
Tatsuo Shoji
Department of Energy Engineering and Science, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-01, Japan
~Received 5 February 1997; accepted 23 June 1997!
An ion extraction method using plasma-sheath resonance in a weak magnetic field has been
employed to measure the electric field distribution and the time-resolved potential distribution
experimentally. The Xe discharge plasma is sandwiched by parallel plate electrodes, which are set
parallel to the magnetic field. When resonance occurs at 10 MHz, the electric field perpendicular to
the magnetic field has its peak at the midpoint of the electrodes’ length. Therefore, a standing wave
seems to be induced in the electrodes. When measuring the time-resolved potential distribution
perpendicular to the magnetic field at the midpoint of the electrodes’ length, potential gradients are
formed and their directions are reversed in one rf period. It is, therefore, verified that the rf electric
field penetrates to the plasma. Moreover, simulation results show that the electric field strength in
the resonance increases, but nonlinearly, with the applied voltage. © 1997 American Institute of
Physics. @S1070-664X~97!00410-2#

I. INTRODUCTION resonant frequency of the rf field is chosen to excite an

The ion extraction technique from a plasma is important
for plasma processing1 or atomic vapor laser isotope
separation.2–11 Etching during plasma processing requires
the ion extraction efficiency be raised and the ion energy be
controlled, while the ion extraction process in the laser iso-
tope separation has the additional requirement of a shortened
ion extraction time. Ions in the plasma etching process may
be extracted by a dc self-bias, which is generated by apply-
ing a radio frequency ~rf! voltage to an etched substrate.1
Then, the ions are accelerated only in the Child-Langmuir
sheath since the electric field cannot penetrate the plasma
due to the plasma shielding effect. The maximum ion current
obtained in this method, therefore, is the ion saturation cur-
rent, which is decided by the plasma density, the electron
temperature and the dc bias.
In the laser isotope separation system, an atomic vapor is
evaporated by electron-beam heating and the laser light se-
lectively photoionizes one isotopic species in the vapor.
These ions are extracted from the photoionized plasma by an
electrical extraction method. In order to develop a rapid ion
extraction method, many reports2–11 have appeared in the
past few years dealing with theoretical aspects,2–4 computer
simulations,5 and experiments.6–11Most of them focused on
conventional ion extraction using an electrostatic field. The
ions in the electrostatic method are accelerated only at the
ion sheath in the same way as in the etching process. Al-
though these improvements help to fulfill the rapid extraction
requirement, the limitation due to the plasma shielding effect
still remains. If the electric field penetrates the plasma with-
out the shielding effect and ions in the plasma are acceler-
ated, the ion extraction efficiency will be raised effectively.
We previously have proposed an ion extraction method
using a rf resonant electric field.12–15 In this method, the
eigenmode of the plasma wave in a low magnetic field. The
rf resonant phenomenon we use here is the sheath-plasma
resonance.16–21 The sheath-plasma resonance without a mag-
netic field was found first in rf probe experiments by
Takayama et al.16 and its mechanism has been studied
theoretically17–19 and in computer simulations.20 It is well
known for this resonance that the electric field penetrates
into the plasma20 and the rectified electron current to the
probe increases.16–20 Moreover, the sheath-plasma resonance
with a magnetic field was found by Dote and Ichimiya.21 The
ion motion, however, is not known yet because the mecha-
nism was described by electron motion only and ions were
treated as a fixed background. Additionally, the penetrated
electric field distribution is not examined in detail experi-
mentally.
In a previous paper,12,14 we theoretically evaluated the
conditions of the rf resonance in a low magnetic field and
selected the lower frequency of the two plasma-sheath reso-
nances because this frequency has hardly any dependence on
the plasma density. Moreover, we confirmed that the reso-
nance existed in the Xe discharge plasma between parallel
plate electrodes and we verified that the ion current obtained
by this method is twice as large as the ion saturation current
in the electrostatic ion extraction method.
Additionally, we studied the mechanisms of the rf reso-
nance ion extraction method by one-dimensional particle
simulation.13,15 In the rf period at resonance, a large electric
field penetrates into the plasma and the electrons are moved
collectively by the penetrated electric field and the magnetic
field. In the first ion extraction mechanism, ions are extracted
from both sides due to the higher plasma potential formed by
the rectified electron current. For the second, the time-
averaged electric field in the plasma region causes the ions to

Phys. Plasmas 4 (10), October 1997 1070-664X/97/4(10)/3527/6/$10.00 © 1997 American Institute of Physics 3527
 FIG. 1. Schematic diagram of the experimental apparatus.
be accelerated to both electrodes; namely, restriction of the
plasma shielding effect is overcome by this electric field.
In this method, the penetrated electric field has a very
important role. Our concerns in this paper, therefore, are to
measure the electric field distribution and the time-resolved
potential distribution in experiments and to confirm the pre-
vious simulation results.
The experimental setup, the measurement system and the
simulation method are described in Sec. II. In Sec. III, the
experimental results are presented and the electric field
strength is discussed.
II. EXPERIMENT AND SIMULATION METHOD
A. Experimental method
The experimental apparatus, which uses a Xe discharge
plasma in a low magnetic field, is shown schematically in
Fig. 1. Details of the apparatus were described previously.14
Only the main components important to the present work are
given here. The vacuum chamber is made up of two parts,
the plasma generation section and the test section. In the
plasma generation section, the Xe plasma is continuously
generated in the glass tube ~diameter, 30 mm! by the rf elec-
tric discharge, which is inductively induced by the six-turn
coil. The magnetic field in this section is 231022 T. The rf
used for the plasma generation is 300 MHz. The maximum rf
power for the plasma generation is 950 W.
The vacuum chamber enclosing the test section is 1.5 m
long and 0.8 m in diameter. The test section includes parallel
plate electrodes ~length, 0.5 m; height, 150 mm; gap dis-
tance, 50 mm!, rf circuits, and the measurement system.
Typically, Xe gas pressure in the test section is 431024 Torr
while the background pressure is less than 1025 Torr. The
uniform magnetic field is applied almost parallel to the elec-
trodes in this section and its magnitude is 531023 T. There-
fore, the Xe plasma is transferred along the magnetic field
from the plasma generation section to the test section. The
plasma width between the electrodes is set as 37.5 mm by
the limiter. The plasma density, the electron temperature, and
their distributions are measured by a Langmuir double probe,
which is movable in the x and z directions. The ranges of the
3528 Phys. Plasmas, Vol. 4, No. 10, October 1997
FIG. 2. ~a! Schematic diagram of the rf applied circuit and the measurement
system for the electric field strength distribution, ~b! the measurement sys-
tem for time-resolved potential distribution by the time-sampling method,
and ~c! the range of probe movement.
plasma density and the electron temperature in the test sec-
tion are 0.2–1.4 3 1016 m23 and 7–12 eV, respectively.
The rf circuit for the ion extraction is shown in Fig. 2~a!.
The rf power is amplified by the rf amplifier and applied to
the electrodes as the power reflection from the electrodes is
minimized by the matching box. The transmitted and re-
flected rf powers are measured by the directional coupler and
the spectral analyzer. The rf is swept in the range from 0.2
MHz to 25 MHz. The negative dc bias voltage is applied
with the rf voltage by mixing between the matching box and
the electrode. The high impedance coil is used to shield the
rf power transfer to the dc source. The applied voltage V rf
and current I rf are measured by the voltage probe and current
probe.
Figure 2~a! also shows the measurement system for the
electric field strength distribution. The electric field strength
distribution perpendicular to the magnetic field is obtained
by using the double probes, as shown in Fig. 2~a!. The dif-
ference of floating potentials at two points, separated at a
distance of 5 mm, is measured by a differential FET ~field
effect transistor! probe. The lock-in amplifier reads out the
amplitude and phase of the signal, which is synchronized
with the applied rf. The measurement point can be changed
by the x-z stage using the pulsed stepping motor.
The time-resolved potential distribution is measured by
the time-sampling method using a Langmuir single probe
and a boxcar averager, as shown in Fig. 2~b!. The probe
Matsui et al.
TABLE I. Experimental conditions. to ~0 mm, 0.25 m!. Using the measurement conditions of
Table I, it is confirmed that the resonance occurred at about
Experimental Simulation
Parameter Symbol value value 10 MHz.14
The electric field distribution in vacuum, in which the
Xe pressure in test region P 4 3 1024 Torr ••• frequency is 4 MHz, is shown in Fig. 3~a!. The amplitude in
Electron density ne 1.2 3 1016 m23 1.2 3 1016 m23
Electron temperature Te 7–8 eV 8 eV
the electrodes is high and constant. The phase is also con-
Magnetic field B 5 3 1023 T 5 3 1023 T stant. Therefore, this measurement system can measure the
Electrode length L 500 mm ••• value corresponding to the electric field.
Electrode height H 150 mm ••• The results in the plasma are shown in Figs. 3~b!–3~e!.
Electrode gap d 50 mm 50 mm The amplitude and phase of the electric field at 2.5 MHz
Plasma width p 37.5 mm 50 mm
~initial!
change gradually and the amplitude becomes a minimum
rf frequency f 0.2 – 25 MHz 0,7,10 MHz near the midpoint of the electrodes’ length (z50!. On the
rf voltage V rf 0 – 50 Vrms 0 – 400 Vrms other hand, the amplitude of the electric field has a peak in
dc voltage V dc 250 V 250 V the electrodes at 7 and 10 MHz. It has several peaks at 16
MHz. Particularly, at 10 MHz, the peak value is large and the
phase of the electric field is almost constant from z520.15
m to z50.15 m. This result shows that the electric field
voltage, V p , to obtain the single probe characteristics is ap- penetrates into the plasma when the resonance occurs. Addi-
plied by the wave generator. The probe current, I p , is mea- tionally, the standing wave seems to be induced in the elec-
sured as the voltage between the 50 V resistor and amplified trodes when the resonance occurs.
by the isolation amplifier, of which the measurable maxi-
mum frequency is 50 MHz. The boxcar averager measures B. Time-resolved potential distribution perpendicular
the output of the isolation amplifier at a selected time win- to the magnetic field
dow. The time window is set at 20 ns and its starting time in As mentioned in the previous section, the amplitude of
a rf period can be controlled by synchronization with the the electric field has a peak at the center of the z axis at 7 and
applied rf. For example, when the rf is 10 MHz, the five parts 10 MHz but the absolute plasma potential is not gotten. The
of the rf period can be measured. Therefore, this measure- time-resolved potential distribution perpendicular to the
ment system can obtain the time-resolved single probe char- magnetic field is measured by the system using the boxcar
acteristics at the selected period in a rf period. The time- averager. Then, the probe is moved on the x axis while re-
resolved plasma potential is analyzed by the V-I curve of the maining at the origin of the z axis, which is from
single probe characteristics and its distribution can be mea- (x,z)5~217.5 mm, 0.0 m! to ~12.5 mm, 0.0 m!. The mea-
sured by changing the probe position. The range of probe surement conditions are again as in Table I. The applied
movement is shown in Fig. 2~c!. The measurement condi- voltages at 7 and 10 MHz are shown in Fig. 4. The second
tions are listed in Table I. harmonic seems to occur in these frequencies. This phenom-
enon will be discussed later. The selected time window is set
at 20 ns and its time position between the five parts of the rf
B. Simulation method period, designated ~A! to ~E!, are given in this figure.
In order to simulate the time-resolved potential distribu- The samples of the time-resolved single probe character-
tion, the one-dimensional particle simulation code, istics at 10 MHz are shown in Fig. 5. This figure shows the
XPDP1,22,23 is used. In this code, ions and electrons are differential single probe characteristics in each period at
treated as super particles. Although the particle position is (x,z)5~217.5 mm, 0.0 m!. Since the probe voltage which
treated as one-dimensional (x direction!, the particle veloci- has a peak value indicates the plasma potential, it is found
ties are calculated in three dimensions to treat the effects of that the plasma potential changes from 0 to 25 V periodi-
the magnetic field. In order to simulate the plasma-sheath cally. On the other hand, the measurement errors of the
resonance in this code, the magnetic field was slightly plasma potential are evaluated as follows. First, the error of
slanted for the parallel electrodes, as described minutely in the differential single probe current is evaluated in the plane
previous papers.13,15 This point is, therefore, different from region where there is no electron current; for example in Fig.
the experimental condition. The other calculation conditions 5 this is the area where the probe voltage is smaller than 240
simulate the experimental ones, as shown in Table I. V. Next, we assume the peak value also has that current
error, and we estimate the error of the peak voltage by the
current error, as shown in Fig. 5. When the plasma potential
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION changes in the time window ~20 ns!, the peak shape of the
single probe characteristics becomes broad, as shown in pe-
A. Electric field strength distribution parallel to the riod ~A! in Fig. 5. Therefore, we note that the error of the
magnetic field
peak voltage includes the change of the plasma potential in
The electric field strength distribution parallel to the the time window.
magnetic field is measured by the system using the lock-in Figure 6 shows the experiment and simulation results of
amplifier. The probe is moved on the z axis while remaining the potential distribution when only a dc voltage of 250 V is
at the origin of the x axis, i.e., from (x,z)5~0 mm, 20.5 m! applied. In the plasma region, the potential is flat in both

Phys. Plasmas, Vol. 4, No. 10, October 1997 Matsui et al. 3529
FIG. 3. The electric field strength distributions parallel to the magnetic field. The measurement points are from (x,z)5~0.0 m, 20.5 m! to ~0.0 m, 0.25 m!:
~a! in vacuum ( f 5 4 MHz!, ~b! in plasma ( f 5 2.5 MHz!, ~c! in plasma ( f 5 7 MHz!, ~d! in plasma ( f 5 10 MHz!, and ~e! in plasma ( f 5 16 MHz!.

results. In the experiment, the plasma potential is about 3 V

and the error of its value is very small. On the other hand, the
potential in the simulation is higher than the experimental
one. This seems to be because the electrons are easily ex-

FIG. 5. The differential single probe characteristics by time-resolved mea-

surement at 10 MHz. The measurement points are at (x,z)5~217.5 mm, 0.0
m!. The circle point shows the peak value, in which the probe voltage
FIG. 4. The applied voltages at 7 and 10 MHz. corresponds the plasma potential.

3530 Phys. Plasmas, Vol. 4, No. 10, October 1997 Matsui et al.
FIG. 6. The potential distribution when only a dc voltage 250 V is applied.
The measurement points are from (x,z!5~217.5 mm, 0.0 m! to ~20 mm, 0.0
m!. The circle point and the solid line show the experimental result and the
simulation result, respectively.
tracted to the electrode since the magnetic field encounter the
electrodes in the simulation.
Figures 7 and 8 show the time-resolved potential distri-
butions at 7 and 10 MHz, respectively. In the experimental
results, the potential gradients are observed in the plasma
region and they are reversed in one rf period; for example, in
periods ~A! and ~D! in Fig. 7 or in periods ~C! and ~E! in Fig.
8. Especially, the magnitude of the error bar periodically
changes in each point. Since this is because the error in-
cludes the transient change of the plasma potential in the
measurement time window, this viewpoint also supports the
FIG. 7. The time-resolved potential distributions at 7 MHz. The measure-
ment points are from (x,z)5~217.5 mm, 0.0 m! to ~20 mm, 0.0 m!. The
circle point and the solid line show the experimental result and the simula-
tion result, respectively.
Phys. Plasmas, Vol. 4, No. 10, October 1997
FIG. 8. The time-resolved potential distributions at 10 MHz. The measure-
ment points are from (x,z)5~217.5 mm, 0.0 m! to ~20 mm, 0.0 m!. The
circle point and the solid line show the experimental result and the simula-
tion result, respectively.
penetration of the rf electric field. In period ~E! in Fig. 8, the
electric field in the plasma region is about 600 V/m. More-
over, the potential gradients at 10 MHz seems to be larger
than those at 7 MHz. On the other hand, these figures show
the simulated results. However, the relation of phases of the
applied rf voltage and the penetrated electric field is different
in the experiment and simulation. Then, the simulation re-
sults are plotted so that the phase of the penetrated electric
field in simulation correspond to that in the experiment. Each
simulation plot is also averaged over 20 ns. The electric field
in the simulation is also found to periodically penetrate into
the plasma in one rf period. The electric field at 10 MHz is
about 1600 V/m, which is about three times as large as that
of the experimental results.
In the above results, there are some discrepancies be-
tween the experiment and simulation results. The first is the
difference in the relation of phases of the applied rf voltage
and the penetrated electric field. The second is the electric
field strength. The third is that the potential in the simulation
becomes negative periodically but that in the experiment
does not reach the negative region. Although the cause of the
first discrepancy is unclear yet, it seems to be the second
harmonic of the applied voltage in the experiment. As shown
in Fig. 4, the second harmonic is particular to the period ~C!
at 10 MHz. In the potential profile in the period ~C! in Fig. 8,
Matsui et al. 3531

FIG. 9. The dependence of the electric field strength in an rf period on the
applied voltage ~simulation!.
the potential gradient is positive relative to the x axis. When
the potential profile is like this in the plasma-sheath reso-
nance, the rectified electron current flows into the rf applied
electrode.13,15 The electrode voltage, therefore, seems to drop
in this period. On the other hand, the applied voltage in the
simulation is set as the perfect sine wave. Therefore, the
discrepancy of the applied voltage form seems to cause the
difference of the phase relation. The cause of the second
discrepancy seems to be that the electrons are easily ex-
tracted to the electrode since the magnetic field encounters
the electrodes in the simulation, as mentioned above. The
cause of the third discrepancy seems to be that the plasma in
the experiment is surrounded by the grounded vacuum cham-
ber. Therefore, the plasma potential in the experiment hardly
seems to be negative. Although there are some discrepancies
between the experiment and simulation, we have verified that
the rf electric field penetrates to the plasma in the plasma-
sheath resonance experimentally.
Next, the dependence of the electric field strength in one
rf period on the applied voltage is investigated by simulation.
The simulation conditions, except for the applied voltage, are
the same as in Fig. 8. Figure 9 shows the results. The electric
field increases with the applied voltage and its relation is
non-linear. In our previous simulation work,13,15 we clarified
that the electrons in the resonance were extracted faster than
the ions and this extra ion charge formed the high plasma
potential. We also noted the electric field strength in one rf
period was decided by the extra ion charge and the electron
collective motion. On the other hand, the extracted electron
current is well known to be a rectified electron current in the
plasma-sheath resonance and it increases with the applied
voltage non-linearly.19 Therefore, the non-linearity of the
electric field strength seems to be related to that of the rec-
tified electron current.
IV. CONCLUSION
The ion extraction method using the plasma-sheath reso-
nance in a weak magnetic field was employed to measure the
electric field distribution and the time-resolved potential dis-
tribution experimentally.
3532 Phys. Plasmas, Vol. 4, No. 10, October 1997
For experiments the Xe discharge plasma was sand-
wiched by parallel plate electrodes, which were set parallel
to the magnetic field. When the resonance occurred at 10
MHz, the electric field perpendicular to the magnetic field
had its peak at the midpoint of the electrodes’ length and the
phase of the electric field was almost constant. Therefore, the
standing wave seemed to be induced in the electrodes.
When measuring the time-resolved potential distribution
perpendicular to the magnetic field at the midpoint of the
electrodes’ length, potential gradients were formed and their
directions were reversed in one rf period. Therefore, we veri-
fied that the rf electric field penetrated to the plasma in the
plasma-sheath resonance experimentally. Moreover, the
simulation showed that the electric field increased with the
applied voltage in a nonlinear manner.
1
See, for example, F. F. Chen, Phys. Plasmas 2, 2164 ~1995!.
2
F. F. Chen, Phys. Fluids 25, 2385 ~1982!.
3
K. Okano, J. Nucl. Sci. Technol. 29, 601 ~1992!.
4
M. Murakami and K. Nishihara, Phys. Fluids B 5, 1447 ~1993!.
5
P. Vitello, C. Cerjan, and D. Braun, Phys. Fluids B 4, 1447 ~1992!.
6
K. Yamada, T. Tetsuka, and Y. Deguchi, J. Appl. Phys. 67, 6734 ~1990!.
7
K. Yamada, T. Tetsuka, and Y. Deguchi, J. Appl. Phys. 69, 6962 ~1991!.
8
K. Yamada, H. Okada, T. Tetsuka, and K. Yoshioka, J. Nucl. Sci. Technol.
30, 143 ~1993!.
9
K. Ogura, T. Arisawa, and T. Shibata, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., Part 1 31, 1485
~1992!.
10
R. Nishio, K. Yamada, K. Suzuki, and M. Wakabayashi, J. Nucl. Sci.
Technol. 32, 180 ~1995!.
11
K. Yamada, T. Tetsuka, and Y. Deguchi, J. Nucl. Sci. Technol. 31, 301
~1994!.
12
T. Matsui, K. Tsuchida, R. Nishio, K. Suzuki, and T. Shoji, Proc. Int.
Conf. Plasma Physics, Innsbruck, Austria, 1992 ~European Physics Soci-
ety, Petit-Laucy, 1992!, Vol. 16c, Part III, p. 2121.
13
See AIP Document No. E-PAPS: E-PHPAE-03-4367-0.4 MB for T. Mat-
sui, K. Tsuchida, S. Tsuda, K. Suzuki and T. Shoji, Proceedings, Interna-
tional Conference on Plasma Physics, Foz do iguaçu, Brazil, 1994 ~Na-
tional Institute of Space Research, São José dos Campos, 1994!, Vol. 3, p.
313. E-PAPS document files may be retrieved free of charge from our FTP
sever ~http//www.aip.org/epaps/epaps.html!. For further information:
e-mail: paps@aip.org or fax: 516-576-2223.
14
T. Matsui, K. Tsuchida, S. Tsuda, K. Suzuki, and T. Shoji, Phys. Plasmas
3, 4367 ~1996!.
15
T. Matsui, K. Tsuchida, S. Tsuda, K. Suzuki and T. Shoji, companion
paper, ‘‘Particle simulation of ion extraction from plasma by a radio fre-
quency resonance method,’’ Phys. Plasmas 4, 3518 ~1997!.
16
K. Takayama, H. Ikegami, and S. Miyazaki, Phys. Rev. Lett. 5, 238
~1960!.
17
R. S. Harp and F. W. Crawford, J. Appl. Phys. 35, 3436 ~1964!.
18
G. Bekefi, Radiation Processes in Plasmas ~Wiley, New York, 1965!,
Chap. 5.
19
T. Dote and T. Ichimiya, J. Appl. Phys. 36, 1866 ~1965!.
20
M. A. Hellberg, J. Plasma Phys. 2~3!, 395 ~1968!.
21
T. Dote and T. Ichimiya, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 22, 1266 ~1967!.
22
C. K. Birdsall and A. B. Langdon, Plasma Physics Via Computer Simu-
lation, 1st ed. ~McGraw–Hill, New York, 1985!.
23
C. K. Birdsall, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. PS-19, 65 ~1991!.
Matsui et al.