A novel capacitively coupled plasma driven by hollow cathode radio-frequency discharges

Abstract New plasma sources with high density and low energy are required to process material surfaces in nanometers. In this study, an electrode integrated with a hollow cathode (HC) and capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) was developed. With the tool, a novel capacitively coupled plasma driven by the hollow cathode radio-frequency discharges (HC-CCP) was observed experimentally, and its properties in the center of the chamber were investigated by a Langmuir probe. The results demonstrated that the HC-CCP presents wide ranges of electron density ( n e ), between 10 9 and 10 10 cm −3 , and electron energy ( T e ), 3.5–6.7 eV. And their distributions can be controlled by the modulation of radio-frequency source power and frequency, work pressure, and bias voltage. Therefore, this plasma source can be applied to a new generation of material processing.