4D Density Determination of NH Radicals in an MSE Microplasma Combining Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence and Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy

An application of microplasmas is surface modification under mild conditions and of small, well defined areas. For this, an understanding of the plasma composition is of importance. First results of our work on the production and detection of NH radicals in a capacitively coupled radio frequency (RF) microplasma are presented. A microstructured comb electrode was used to generate a glow discharge in a hydrogen/nitrogen gas mixture by applying 13.56 MHz RF voltage. The techniques of planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) and cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) are used for space and time resolved, quantitative detection of the NH radical in the plasma. The rotational temperature was determined to be 820 K and, the density 5.1x1012 cm3. Also, time dependent behaviour of the NH production was observed.