Stuttgart 2012 – scientific programme

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P: Fachverband Plasmaphysik

P 6: Grundlegende Phänomene

P 6.1: Invited Talk

Monday, March 12, 2012, 16:30–17:00, V57.01

Investigation of high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS) discharge using fast ICCD camera — •Ante Hecimovic, Teresa de los Arcos, Volker Schulz-von der Gathen, Marc Böke, and Jörg Winter — Research Department Plasmas with Complex Interactions, Institute for Experimental Physics II, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany

High power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS) combines impulse glow discharges at power levels up to the MW range with conventional magnetron cathodes to achieve a highly ionised sputtered flux. The dynamics of the HIPIMS discharge was investigated using fast Intensified Charge Coupled Device (ICCD) camera. In the first experiment the HIPIMS plasma was recorded from the side with goal to analyse the plasma intensity using Abel inversion to obtain the emissivity maps of the plasma species. Resulting emissivity maps provide the information on the spatial distribution of Ar and sputtered material and evolution of the plasma chemistry above the cathode. In the second experiment the plasma emission was recorded with camera facing the target. The images show that the HIPIMS plasma develops drift wave type instabilities characterized by well defined regions of high and low plasma emissivity along the racetrack of the magnetron. The instabilities cause periodic shifts in the floating potential. The structures rotate in ExB direction at velocities of ~10 kms-1 and frequencies up to 200 kHz. The high emissivity regions comprise Ar and metal ion emission with strong Ar and metal neutral emission depletion.