Influence of nanoparticle formation on discharge properties in argon-acetylene capacitively coupled radio frequency plasmas

This contribution presents experimental results regarding the influence of nanoparticle formation in capacitively coupled radio frequency (13.56 MHz) argon-acetylene plasmas. The discharge is studied using non-invasive 160 GHz Gaussian beam microwave interferometry and optical emission spectroscopy. Particularly, the temporal behavior of the electron density from microwave interferometry is analyzed and compared with the changing plasma emission and self-bias voltage caused by nanoparticle formation. The periodic particle formation with a cycle duration between 30 s and 140 s starts with an electron density drop over more than one order of magnitude below the detection limit (8 x 10(14) m(-3)). The electron density reduction is the result of electron attachment processes due to negative ions and nanoparticle formation. The onset time constant of nanoparticle formation is five times faster compared to the expulsion of the particles from the plasma due to multi-disperse size distribution. Moreover, the intensity of the argon transition lines increases and implies a rising effective electron temperature. The cycle duration of the particle formation is affected by the total gas flow rate and exhibits an inverse proportionality to the square of the total gas flow rate. The variation in the total gas flow rate influences the force balance, which determines the confinement time of the nanoparticles. As a further result, the cycle duration is dependent on the axial position of the powered electrode, which also corresponds to different distances relative to the fixed optical axis of the microwave interferometer. (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.