Measuring effects of electron beams in RF plasmas

The use of low pressure gas discharges for plasma based etching and deposition processes is now well established. An important challenge that needs to be addressed concerns the tailoring of plasma properties to promote specific plasma-surface interactions and to suppress others. An electron beam is being used in this work to modify the energy distribution formation of electrons (EEDF) as a means to this end. In principle, this approach adds two further variables, beam current and beam energy, with which to control the plasma. This report concerns basic measurements which are being developed to monitor the effects of an external electron beam on an RF plasma