Energy measurements of sheath-accelerated secondary electrons in plasma immersion ion implantation

In this paper, energy measurements of sheath-accelerated secondary electrons were carried out during plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) based on a temperature-controlled semiconductor detector. Reducing secondary electrons incident to the detector having an integrating circuit, a voltage step corresponding to incidence of single secondary electron was observed. Step height analysis for the detector output enabled us to give kinetic energy of the secondary electron, and the measured energy was found to be proportional to the sheath voltage. The operating pressure hardly had an influence on the kinetic energy for the pressure less than similar to 1.3 Pa. Therefore collision effects in the gas phase was negligible on this measurement. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.