Abstract - Experimental results pertaining to the plasma recovery process during the pulse-off time in plasma source

ion implantation are presented. A series of experiments conducted in low-pressure argon plasma with various

pulse voltages and pulse-on times reveals that the plasma recovery time is almost linearly proportional to

the sheath thickness at the switch-off time. However, for sheaths larger than several centimeters, the plasma

recovery times are observed to be shorter than those predicted by a simple theoretical model, expressed as

5 s/uB where uB and s are the Bohm speed and the sheath thickness at the switch-off time, respectively.

The reduction of plasma recovery time is found to be the consequence of realistic plasma parameters such

as non-uniform density and ion drift velocity distributions in front of a target, which were not considered

in the theoretical model.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsf.2013.05.073