Role of hydrogen in evolution of plasma parameters and dust growth in capacitively coupled dusty plasmas

Abstract

The temporal behavior of naturally produced dust parameters (radius and density) and plasma parameters (electron temperature and ion flux) was investigated in radio frequency SiH(4)/H(2)/Ar plasmas. As a result, the electron temperature and ion flux were shown to be strongly correlated with the three-step dust growth pattern. In addition, the generation of dust particles was suppressed by mixing more hydrogen gas due to the plasma chemistry, and consequently, the dust growth rate in the molecular accretion growth, which is known to be proportional to the growth rate of thin film deposition, increased. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3518722]