Variation of the Discharge Characteristics with the Ion Mass in a Capacitive Coupled RF Plasma

Summary form only given. Capacitive coupled radio frequency plasmas are widely used in plasma processing applications such as sputtering, etching and deposition. The properties of the ions impinging the surface influence important factors such as the sputtering yield and etch rates making it desirable to have independent control of each characteristic. In these systems, the low frequency component controls the ion energy while the high frequency determines the ion flux. We are using the kinetic/fluid hybrid Particle-In-Cell (PIC) code VORPAL to simulate "dual frequency capacitive plasma sources, with an emphasis on measuring the influence of the sheath on plasma/wall interactions. The variation in the discharge characteristics with the ion mass and the resulting sputter yields are presented. Additionally, the affect of accounting for secondary electron emission due to ion impact on the sheath characteristics is also investigated.