Investigation of a steady-state cylindrical magnetron discharge for plasma immersion treatment

Ion current distribution in a system with crossed magnetic and electrical fields for plasma immersion ion implantation has been investigated. It is found that the ion current to a target has a nonmonotonic behavior with bias voltage when a magnetic field is applied. For instance, the current density has a maximum of about 150 A/m(2) at bias voltage of about 1 kV in the case of a magnetic field parallel to the target of about 0.035 T. These results are explained in terms of ionization by magnetized electrons in the E X B system. Our findings suggest that the system with crossed fields can be used for intense plasma immersed processing. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.