Optical Emission Spectroscopic Studies of ICP Ar Plasma

The ion line of 434.8 nm and atom line of 419.8 nm of Ar plasma produced by an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) were measured by optical emission spectroscopy and the influences from the working gas pressure, radio-frequency (RF) power and different positions in the discharge chamber on the line intensities were investigated in this study. It was found that the intensity of Ar atom line increased firstly and then saturated with the increase of the pressure. The line intensity of Ar+, on the other hand, reached a maximum value and then decreased along with the pressure. The intensity of the line in an RF discharge also demonstrated a jumping mode and a hysteresis phenomenon with the RF power. When the RF power increased to 400 W, the discharge jumped from the E-mode to the H-mode where the line intensity of Ar atom demonstrated a sudden increase, while the intensity of Ar+ ion only changed slightly. If the RF power decreased from a high value, e.g., 1000 W, the discharge would jump from the H-mode back to the E-mode at a power of 300 W. At this time the intensities of Ar and Ar+ lines would also decrease sharply. It was also noticed in this paper that the intensity of the ion line depended on the detective location in the chamber, namely at the bottom of the chamber the line was more intense than that in the middle of the chamber, but less intense than at the top, which is considered to be related to the capacitance coupling ability of the ICP plasma in different discharge areas