The generation and detection of high flux atomic oxygen for physical vapor deposition thin film growth

The growth of many epitaxial thin-film oxides is significantly enhanced with the use of an oxidizing agent such as atomic oxygen, ozone, or NO2. We developed a flow-through microwave plasma source to generate large atomic oxygen fluxes while maintaining vacuum pressures of less that 1 x 10(-4) Torr. Continuous and real-time detection of the atomic oxygen was achieved by atomic absorption of the 130 nm atomic oxygen lines. Atomic oxygen fluxes of at least 1.4 x 10(18) atoms/cm(2) s and dissociation efficiencies of around 100% were obtained. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)00952-3].