Nitrogen Atom Energy Distributions in a Hollow-cathode Planar Sputtering Magnetron [electronic resource].
Published
Washington, D.C. : United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Energy Research, 1999. Oak Ridge, Tenn. : Distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy.
Energy distributions of N atoms in a hollow-cathode planar sputtering magnetron were obtained by use of optical emission spectroscopy. A characteristic line, N I 8216.3 Å, well-separated from molecular nitrogen emission bands, was identified. Jansson's nonlinear spectral deconvolution method, refined by minimization of χw ² , was used to obtain the optimal deconvolved spectra. These showed nitrogen atom energies from 1 eV to beyond 500 eV. Based on comparisons with VFTRIM results, we propose that the energetic N atoms are generated from N2+ ions after these ions are accelerated through the sheath and dissociatively reflect from the cathode.