Optical emission spectroscopic study of a radio-frequency plasma of Ar+SiH4

In the radio-frequency (rf) glow discharge plasma of a flowing mixture of silane and argon, the intensities of the peaks at 414.2 and 750.4 nm, arising due to SiH (A 2Δ–X 2Π) and Ar [4p′(1/2)0–s′(1/2)0] transitions, respectively, have been studied by optical emission spectroscopy with the argon dilution level and the rf power density as the variable parameters. The experimental points have been satisfactorily fitted with the densities of metastable argon and the excited silane, obtained from the kinetics of reactions going on in the plasma.