Ion-plasma etching initiated by the appearance of a beam

Abstract

The etching of quartz sample by the flow of energetic ions from the beam plasma produced by continuous electron beam injected in a dielectric cavity in argon in medium vacuum (2.7 Pa) was demonstrated. The energy of bombarding ions was adjusted by the voltage drop on a sheath between a plasma boundary and the cavity bottom charging by the electron beam, so the beam was the only source of generating ions and adjusting their energy. It was found that the etching rate grows with the electron beam energy following the increase in the absolute value of the near-bottom voltage drop.