Electron energy distribution functions and the influence on fluorocarbon plasma chemistry

Two different modes of electron heating are found in microwave discharges: the bulk heating mode characterized with low electron density n(e) and high electron temperature T-e (similar to 10 eV), and the surface heating mode with high n(e) and low T-e (similar to3 eV). The correlation between the heating mode and the electron energy distribution function (EEDF) is qualitatively interpreted in terms of non-local kinetic theory, taking account of the ambipolar potential well. A biased optical probe diagnostics of a surface wave plasma (SWP) reveals that the surface heating mode gives a bi-Maxwellian type EEDF, that is, a sum of two Maxwellian distributions of bulk temperature T-b and tail temperature T-t > T-b. On the other hand, the EEDF of inductively coupled plasma (ICP) is close to a single-Maxwellian distribution with electron temperature higher than the bulk temperature Tb of the SWP. Such differences in the EEDFs make the composition of the reactive species of the two plasmas different; namely, ion and radical measurements at the same electron density show that the ICP contains more F radicals and less CF3 and CF2 radicals in comparison with the SWP. In addition, a simplified model based on the bi-Maxwellian EEDF shows how the EEDF determines the ion and radical compositions, supporting the major experimental results. These observations and calculations suggest that plasma chemistry is controllable by tailoring the EEDF with proper adjustment of bulk heating and/or surface heating of electrons.