Negative-ion surface production in hydrogen plasmas: Determination of the negative-ion energy and angle distribution function using mass spectrometry

TL;DR

This study investigates the production and emission characteristics of negative ions on a graphite surface in hydrogen plasmas, introducing a method to determine their energy and angle distribution functions through mass spectrometry.

Contribution

It presents a novel method to extract the energy and angle distribution functions of negative ions emitted from a surface in plasma, validated by experimental data.

Findings

Negative ions are produced on graphite surfaces under ion bombardment.

The shape of the measured NIEDF differs from the emitted ions due to spectrometer acceptance.

The proposed method effectively determines the distribution functions of emitted negative ions.

Abstract

This work focuses on the understanding of the production mechanism of negative-ions on surface in low pressure plasmas of H2/D2. The negative ions are produced on a HOPG sample (Highly Oriented Pyrolitic Graphite) negatively biased with respect to plasma potential. The negative ions created under the positive ion bombardment are accelerated towards the plasma, self-extracted and detected according to their energy and mass by a mass spectrometer placed in front of the sample. The shape of the measured Negative-Ion Energy Distribution Function (NIEDF) strongly differs from the NIEDF of the ions emitted by the sample because of the limited acceptance angle of the mass spectrometer. To get information on the production mechanisms, we propose a method to obtain the distribution functions in energy and angle (NIEADFs) of the negative-ions emitted by the sample. It is based on an a priori determination of the NIEADF and on an a posteriori validation of the choice by comparison of the modelled and experimental NIEDFs.