Mitigating dust particle contamination in an afterglow plasma by controlled lifting with a DC electric field

Particle contamination due to plasma processing motivates the design of a method of electrically lifting particles in a time interval after a plasma’s power is turned off. Small solid dust particles have electric charges that are not frozen until a late stage of the plasma afterglow. Beyond that tim...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of physics. D, Applied physics Applied physics, 2024-03, Vol.57 (10), p.105201
Main Authors: Chaubey, Neeraj, Goree, J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
afterglow plasma
dusty plasma
particle contamination control
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Particle contamination due to plasma processing motivates the design of a method of electrically lifting particles in a time interval after a plasma’s power is turned off. Small solid dust particles have electric charges that are not frozen until a late stage of the plasma afterglow. Beyond that time, before they fall to a surface below and cause defects, particles can be lifted in a controlled manner by applying an appropriate direct-current (DC) electric field, as we demonstrate experimentally. A few milliseconds after an argon plasma’s capacitively coupled radio-frequency power is switched off, a vertical DC electric field is applied. Thereafter, video imaging shows that the falling of the particles is slowed or stopped altogether, depending on the magnitude of the upward electric force.
ISSN:0022-3727
1361-6463
DOI:10.1088/1361-6463/ad1148