Plasma Diagnostics

75

PRINCIPLES OF PLASMA PROCESSING

Course Notes: Prof. F.F. Chen
PART A7: PLASMA DIAGNOSTICS
X. INTRODUCTION
Diagnostics and sensors are both measurement
methods, but they have different connotations. Diagnostic equipment is used in the laboratory on research devices and therefore can be a large, expensive, and one-ofa-kind type of instrument. Sensors, on the other hand,
are used in production and therefore have to be simple,
small, unobtrusive, and foolproof. For instance, endpoint detectors, which signal the end of an etching step
by detecting a spectral line characteristic of the underlying layer, are so important that they are continually being
improved. Practical sensors are few in number but constitute a large subject which we cannot cover here. We
limit the discussion to laboratory equipment used to
measure plasma properties in processing tools.
Diagnostics for determining such quantities as n,
KTe, Vs, etc. that we have taken for granted so far can be
remote or local. Remote methods do not require insertion of an object into the plasma, but they do require at
least one window for access. Local diagnostics measure
the plasma properties at one point in the plasma by insertion of a probe of one type or another there. Remote
methods depend on some sort of radiation, so the window has to be made of a material that is transparent to
the wavelength being used. Sometimes quartz or sapphire windows are needed. The plasma can put a coating
on the window after a while and change the transmission
through it. Probes, on the other hand, have to withstand
bombardment by the plasma particles and the resulting
coating or heating; yet, they have to be small enough so
as not to change the properties being measured.
XI. REMOTE DIAGNOSTICS
1. Optical spectroscopy
One common remote diagnostic is optical emission spectroscopy (OES), which is the optical part of the
more general treatment of radiation covered in Part B. In
Fig. 1. Emission of ionized argon light OES, visible light is usually collected by a lens and foat various z positions in a helicon discused onto the slit of a spectrometer. The detector can be
charge.
a photodiode, a photomultiplier, or an optical multichannel analyzer (OMA). With a photodiode, interference
filters are used to isolate a particular spectral line. Optical radiation can also be used to image a plasma in the
light of a particular spectral line using an interference

76

Part A7

Fig. 2. Schematic of a local OES

probe.

filter and a sensitive CCD camera. Fig. 1 shows the

emission from ionized argon recorded with a narrowband filter for the 488 nm line of Ar+.
A photomultiplier can see only one part of the
spectrum at a time, but it is the most sensitive detector
for faint signals. An OMA records an entire range of
wavelengths on a CCD (charge-coupled detector) and is
the convenient for scans of a single line or for recording
an entire spectrum.
By comparing the intensities of different spectral
lines, one can determine not only the atomic species present but also the electron temperature, density, and the
ionization fraction. The relative intensities of two lines
with different excitation thresholds can yield KTe. The
relative intensities of an ion line and a neutral line can be
used to estimate the ionization fraction. In principle, line
broadening contains a large amount of information, but
only for hot, highly ionized plasmas. For instance, Doppler broadening yields the velocity of the emitting ion or
atom. Stark broadening or pressure broadening gives
information on density. This is because, at high densities, collisions interrupt the emission of radiation, and
hence the line cannot contain a single frequency. In
plasma processing, the most useful and well developed
technique is actinometry. In this method, a known concentration of an impurity is introduced, and the intensities of two neighboring spectral lines, one from the
known gas and one from the sample, are compared.
Since both species are bombarded by the same electron
distribution and the concentration of the actinometer is
know, the density of the sample can be calculated.
Though most optical methods average over a ray
path in the plasma, a more local measurement of light
emission can be made with a probe containing a small
lens coupled to an optical fiber. Such a probe is shown
in Fig. 2, and data from it in Fig. 3.. The lens collects
light preferentially from a small focal spot just in front of
it. The Ar+ light collected by it is localized under the
antenna if B0 = 0, as would be expected in ICP operation.
2. Microwave interferometry

Fig. 3 Example of data on optical

emission vs. z.

Another useful remote diagnostic is microwave

interferometry. A beam of microwave radiation is
launched by a horn antenna into a plasma through a window. According to Eq. (A5-1), these waves can propagate in the plasma if > p. From (A5-1) it is easily
seen that the phase velocity in the plasma is

Plasma Diagnostics

77

c
.
=
2
k (1 p / 2 )1/ 2

Fig. 4. Schematic of a microwave

interferometer (Chen, p. 91).

(1)

This is faster than the velocity of light, but it is quite all

right for phase velocity to be > c as long as the group
velocity is < c. The microwave beam therefore has a
longer wavelength inside the plasma than in air. The
presence of the plasma therefore changes the phase of the
microwave signal, a change which increases with the
density of the plasma. The standard setup is shown in
Fig. 4. The microwave beam from a generator is split
into two parts, one going through the plasma and the
other going through a waveguide toward the detector,
where the two beams are recombined By adjusting the
reference signal with an attenuator and phase shifter, the
two signals can be made to cancel each other, so that the
detector shows zero signal when there is no plasma. If
the plasma density is increased slowly, the signal going
through the plasma will have undergone fewer oscillations, and this phase shift will cause the nulled detector
to give a finite dc signal output. If the plasma density
reaches a value such that the wave loses exactly one
wavelength, the detector will again return to zero; the
signal is shifted by one fringe. By counting the number
of fringes either on the way up to maximum density or on
the way down, one obtains a measure of the average density traversed by the microwave beam. Though this illustrates the principle of interferometry, it is not normally
done this way. First, is usually chosen so that p / is
a small number; then, the phase shift is linearly proportional to n. Second, the entire reference leg can be replaced by a mirror on the opposite side of the plasma to
reflect the beam back into the launching horn. The beam
then travels twice through the plasma and suffers twice
the phase shift. Besides increasing the sensitivity, this
method obviates phase shifts in the reference leg due to
small changes in room temperature, which change the
length of the waveguide. If the plasma is always on, it is
difficult to set the initial null of the detector. There are
various ways to get around this which we need not explain here. Modern network analyzers can do most of
these calibrations automatically, but the principle of operation is always the same.
The phase shift that the plasma causes can be
calculated as follows. If k0 = /c is the propagation constant in air and k1 is that in the plasma, we have

78

Part A7

Interferometer signal

= (k0 k1)dx ,

Vacuum
Plasma

(2)

where k1 is given by Eq. (1) as

1/ 2

n
k1 = k0 1
nc

0
0

x (mm)

Fig. 5. Fringe shifts as the path length

is changed. The lines are analytic fits
through the points.

(3)

Here we have replaced p2/2 by n / nc , where nc is the

critical density defined by
nc e2
=
.
0m
2

(4)

The phase shift is then

n( x ) 1/ 2
= k0 1 1
dx .
nc

(5)

We see that the phase shift measures only the line integral of the density, not the local density. If is high
enough that n << nc, Eq. (5) can be Taylor expanded to
obtain

Fig. 6. Fringe patterns views along

the axis can show the shape of the
plasma [Heald and Wharton, 1978].

k0
2nc

n( x)dx k0 L

<n>
radians,
nc

(6)

where <n> is the average density over the path length L.

In the reflection method, the integral (or L) must be doubled. Fig. 5 gives an example of the interferometer output in the double-pass method as the mirror is moved to
change the path length. The fringe shift is clearly seen,
but it is also evident that the waveform has been distorted. This is because the microwave generator did not
give a pure signal, and its harmonics at higher suffered a different phase shift. By fitting the curves to sine
waves and their harmonics and adjusting the relative
phases, one can recover the phase shift of the fundamental and thus get the density. Fig. 6 shows an end view of
a dense plasma, in which the path length was so long that
many fringes are seen, revealing the shape of the plasma.
Microwave interferometry is useful for calibrating Langmuir probes. With a probe, one can measure the
density profile across a radius or diameter of the plasma,
but the absolute value of the density may not be known
accurately. By using the measured density profile to
compute the integral in Eq. (6), one can find the absolute
density by measuring the microwave phase shift. The
errors in this method come from the fact that the plasma
is not perfectly planar, and the microwave beam is not

Plasma Diagnostics

79
perfectly parallel. Refraction can cause part of the beam
to miss the collector, and reflections from the chamber
walls can cause spurious waves.

3. Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF)

This diagnostic is both non-invasive and local
because it uses intersecting beam paths. Furthermore, it
is the only way to measure Ti without using a large enFig. 7. Perpendicular alignment of ergy analyzer. One laser, tuned to a particular transition,
injection laser and collection optics is used to raise ions to an excited state along one path
[Scime et al., Plasma Sources Sci.
through the plasma. The excited ions fluoresce, giving
Technol. 7, 186 (1998)].
off light at another frequency, and this light is collected
by a lens focused to one part of the path, providing the
localization. Doppler broadening of the line yields the
ion velocity spread in a particular direction. The equipment is large, expensive, and difficult to set up, so that it
is available in a relatively few laboratories. LIF is
treated in more detail in Part B. Figure 7 shows a typical
LIF setup, and Fig. 8 shows data taken in a helicon
plasma.
XII. LANGMUIR PROBES
Fig. 8. LIF data on Ti parallel (solid
points) and perpendicular (open
points) to B0, showing anomalously
high KTi [Kline et al., Phys. Rev. Lett.
88, 195002 (2002]).

1. Construction and circuit

A Langmuir probe is small conductor that can be
introduced into a plasma to collect ion or electron currents that flow to it in response to different voltages. The
current vs. voltage trace, called the I-V characteristic,
can be analyzed to reveal information about n, Te, Vs
(space potential), and even the distribution function fe(v),
but not the ion temperature. Since the probe is immersed
in a harsh environment, special techniques are used to
protect it from the plasma and vice versa, and to ensure
that the circuitry gives the correct I V values. The
probe tip is made of a high-temperature material, usually
a tungsten rod or wire 0.11 mm in diameter. The rod is
threaded into a thin ceramic tube, usually alumina, to insulate it from the plasma except for a short length of exposed tip, about 210 mm long. These materials can be
exposed to low-temperature laboratory plasmas without
melting or excessive sputtering. To avoid disturbing the
plasma, the ceramic tube should be as thin as possible,
preferably < 1 mm in diameter but usually several times
this. The probe tip should extend out of the end of the
tube without touching it, so that it would not be in electrical contact with any conducting coating that may deposit onto the insulator. The assembly is encased in a
vacuum jacket, which could be a stainless steel or glass
tube 1/4 in outside diameter (OD). It is preferable to
make the vacuum seal at the outside end of the probe as-

80

Part A7
sembly rather than at the end immersed in the plasma,
which can cause a leak. Only the ceramic part of the
housing should be allowed to enter the plasma. Some
commercial Langmuir probes use a rather thick metal
tube to support the probe tip assembly, and this can
modify the plasma characteristics unless the density is
very low. In dense plasmas the probe cannot withstand
the heat unless the plasma is pulsed or the probe is mechanically moved in and out of the plasma in less than a
second. When collecting ion current, the probe can be
eroded by sputtering, thus changing its collection area.
This can be minimized by using carbon as the tip material. Ordinary pencil lead, 0.3mm in diameter works well
and can be supported by a hypodermic needle inside the
ceramic shield. One implementation of a probe tip assembly is shown in Fig. 9.

Fig. 9. A carbon probe tip assembly

with RF compensation circuitry [Sudit
and Chen, Plasma Sources Sci.
Technol. 4, 162 (1994)].

v
PROBE

(a)
R

PRO BE

(b)
Fig. 10. Two basic configurations for
the probe circuit.

There are two basic ways to apply a voltage V to

the probe and measure the current I that it draws from the
plasma, and each has its disadvantages. In Fig. 10a, the
probe lead, taken through a vacuum feedthru, is connected to a battery or a variable voltage source (bias supply) and then to a termination resistor R to ground. To
measure the probe current, the voltage across R is recorded or displayed on an oscilloscope. This arrangement has the advantage that the measuring resistor is
grounded and therefore not subject to spurious pickup.
Since the resistor is usually 10-1000, typically 50,
this is not a serious problem anyway. The disadvantage
is that the bias supply is floating. If this is a small battery, it cannot easily be varied. If it is a large electronic
supply, the capacitance to ground will be so large that ac
signals will be short-circuited to ground, and the probe
cannot be expected to have good frequency response.
The bias supply can also act as an antenna to pick up rf
noise. To avoid this, one can ground the bias supply and
put the measuring resistor on the hot side, as shown in
Fig. 10b. This is usually done if the bias supply generates a sweep voltage. However, the voltage across R
now has to be measured with a differential amplifier or
some other floating device; or, it can be optoelectronically transmitted to a grounded circuit. The probe voltage Vp should be measured on the ground side of R so as
not to load the probe with another stray capacitance.
To measure plasma potential with a Langmuir
probe, one can terminate the probe in a high impedance,
such as the 1 M input resistance of the oscilloscope.
This is called a floating probe. A lower R, like 100K,
can be used to suppress pickup. The minimum value of

Plasma Diagnostics

81
R has to be high enough that the IR drop through it does
change the measured voltage. A rough rule of thumb is
that IsatR should be much greater than TeV, or R >>
TeV/Isat, where Isat is the ion saturation current defined
below. The voltage measured is not the plasma potential
but the floating potential, also defined below. The large
value of R means that good frequency response is difficult to achieve because of the RC time constant of stray
capacitances. One can improve the frequency response
with capacitance neutralization techniques, but even
then it is hard to make a floating probe respond to RF
frequencies.

Electron saturation
"Knee"

Transition

Floating potential
Ion saturation

(a)
0.12
0.10

The exponential part of the I V curve, when

plotted semi-logarithmically vs. the probe voltage Vp,
should be a straight line if the electrons are Maxwellian:

I (A)

0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0.00

I e = I es exp[e(V p Vs ) / KTe )] ,

-0.02
-100

2. The electron characteristic

A Langmuir I-V trace is usually displayed upside
down, so that electron current into the probe is in the +y
direction. The curve, resembling that in Fig. 11a, has
five distinct parts. The point at which the curve crosses
the V axis is called the floating potential Vf. To the left
of this the probe draws ion current, and the curve soon
flattens out to a more or less constant value called the ion
saturation current Isat. To the right of Vf, electron current
is drawn, and the I-V curve goes into an exponential part,
or transition region, as the Coulomb barrier is lowered to
allow slower electrons in the Maxwellian distribution to
penetrate it. At the space potential Vs, the curve takes a
sharp turn, called the knee, and saturates at the electron
saturation current Ies. Actual I V curves in RF or
magnetized plasmas usually have an indistinct knee, as
shown in Fig. 11b.

-50

(7)

50

(b)
Fig. 11. (a) An idealized I V characteristic showing its various parts;
(b) a real I V curve from an ICP.

where, from Eq. (A4-2),

1/ 2

KTe
I es = eAne v / 4 = ene A

2 m

(8)

A being the exposed area of the probe tip. Eq. (7) shows
that the slope of the (ln I)Vp curve is exactly 1/TeV and
is a good measure of the electron temperature. As long
as the electrons are Maxwellian and are repelled by the
probe, the EEDF at a potential V < 0 is proportional to
2
2
f (v) e(mv + eV ) / KTe = ee|V |/ KTe e( mv / 2 KTe ) . (9)

82

Part A7

100.0

Ie (mA)

10.0

Maxwellian
Modified data
Raw Data

1.0

0.1
0

10

15

Fig. 12. A semilog plot of electron

current from an I V curve in an ICP.

20

We see that f(v) is still Maxwellian at the same Te; only

the density is decreased by exp(e|V|/KTe). Thus, the
slope of the semilog curve is independent of probe area
or shape and independent of collisions, since these
merely preserve the Maxwellian distribution. However,
before Ie can be obtained from I, one has to subtract the
ion current Ii. This can be done approximately by drawing a straight line through Isat and extrapolating it to the
electron region.
One can estimate the ion contribution more accurately by using one of the theories of ion collection discussed below, but refinements to this small correction are
usually not necessary, and they affect only the highenergy tail of the electron distribution. One easy iteration is to change the magnitude of the Isat correction until
the ln I plot is linear over as large a voltage range as possible. Fig. 12 shows a measured electron characteristic
and a straight-line fit to it. The ion current was calculated from a theoretical fit to Isat and added back to I to
get Ie. The uncorrected points are also shown; they have
a smaller region of linearity.
3. Electron saturation
Since Isat is cs because of the Bohm sheath crite
rion, Ies, given by Eq. (8), should be (M/m) times as
large as Isat. In low-pressure, unmagnetized discharges,
this is indeed true, and the knee of the curve is sharp and
is a good measure of Vs. For very high positive voltages,
Ies increases as the sheath expands, the shape of the curve
depending on the shape of the probe tip. However, effects such as collisions and magnetic fields will lower the
magnitude of Ies and round off the knee so that Vs is hard
to determine. In particular, magnetic fields strong
enough to make the electron Larmor radius smaller than
the probe radius will limit Ies to only 10-20 times Isat because the probe depletes the field lines that it intercepts,
and further electrons can be collected only if they diffuse
across the B-field. The knee, now indistinct, indicates a
space potential, but only that in the depleted tube of field
lines, not Vs in the main plasma. In this case, the I V
curve is exponential only over a range of a few KTe
above the floating potential and therefore samples only
the electrons in the tail of the Maxwellian. One might
think that measurement of Ies would give information on
the electron density, but this is possible only at low densities and pressures, where the mean free path is very
long. Otherwise, the current collected by the probe is so
large that it drains the plasma and changes its equilibrium

Plasma Diagnostics

83
properties. It is better to measure n by collecting ions,
which would give the same information, since plasmas
are quasineutral. More importantly, one should avoid
collecting saturation electron current for more than a few
milliseconds at a time, because the probe can be damaged.
4. Space potential
The time-honored way to obtain the space potential (or plasma potential) is to draw straight lines through
the I V curve in the transition and electron saturation
regions and call the crossing point Vs, Ies. This does not
work well if Ies region is curved. As seen in Fig. 11b, a
good knee is not always obtained even in an ICP with B0
= 0. In that case, there are two methods one can use.
The first is to measure Vf and calculate it from Eq. (A44), regarding the probe as a wall. The second is to take
the point where Ie starts to deviate from exponential
growth; that is, where I e (V ) is maximum or I e (V ) is
zero. If I e (V ) has a distinct maximum, a reasonable
value for Vs is obtained, but it would be dangerous to
equate the current there to Ies. That is because, according to Eq. (7), Ies depends exponentially on the assumed
value of Vs.
5. Ion saturation current1
a) Plane probes. The measurement of Isat is the
simplest and best way to determine n. At densities above
about 1011 cm-3, the sheath around a negatively biased
probe is so thin that the area of the sheath edge is essentially the same as the area of the probe tip itself. The ion
current is then just that necessary to satisfy the Bohm
sheath criterion:
I sat = 0.5eAn( KTe / M )1/ 2 ,

(10)

where the factor 0.5 represents ns/n. This value is only

approximate; when probes are calibrated against other
diagnostics, such as microwave interferometry, a factor
of 0.6-0.7 has been found to be more accurate. Note that
Eq. (10) predicts a constant Isat, which can happen only
for flat probes in which the sheath area cannot expand as
the probe is made more and more negative. In practice,
Isat usually has a slope to it. This is because the ion current has to come from a disturbed volume of plasma (the
presheath) where the ion distribution changes from iso1

For detailed references, see F.F. Chen, Electric Probes, in "Plasma Diagnostic Techniques", ed. by R.H.
Huddlestone and S.L. Leonard (Academic Press, New York, 1965), Chap. 4, pp. 113-200.

84

Part A7

0.03
BRL theory

p = 20

Linear fit
Bohm current

Te = 3 eV, n = 4 x 10

12

-3

cm

I (mA)

Vf

Vs

0.00

= 0.74

-0.03
-160

-140

-120

-100

-80 V

-60

-40

-20

20

Fig. 13. Illustrating the extrapolation

of Ii back to the floating potential to
get Isat.
In this case, the Bohm
coefficient 0.5 in Eq. (10) has to be
replaced by 0.74 to get the right
density.

Vo

a
Rp

Fig. 14. Definition of impact

parameter p.

tropic to unidirectional. If the probe is a disk of radius R,

say, the disturbed volume may have a size comparable to
R, and would increase as the |Vp| increases. In that case,
one can extrapolate Ii back to Vf to get a better measure
of Isat before the expansion of the presheath. This is illustrated in Fig. 13. Better saturation with a plane probe
can be obtained by using a guard ring, a flat washershaped disk surrounding the probe but not touching it. It
is biased at the same potential as the probe to keep the
fields planar as Vp is varied. The current to the guard
ring is disregarded. A section of the chamber wall can be
isolated to be used as a plane probe with a large guard
ring.
b) Cylindrical probes
i) OML theory. As the negative bias on a probe
is increased to draw Ii, the sheath on cylindrical and
spherical probes expands, and Ii does not saturate. Fortunately, the sheath fields fall off rapidly away from the
probe so that exact solutions for Ii(Vp) can be found. We
consider cylindrical probes here because spherical ones
are impractical to make, though the theory for them converges better. The simplest theory is the orbital-motionlimited (OML) theory of Langmuir.
Consider ions coming to the attracting probe from
infinity in one direction with velocity v0 and various impact parameters p. The plasma potential V is 0 at and
is negative everywhere, varying gently toward the negative probe potential Vp . Conservation of energy and angular momentum give
mv02 = mva2 + eVa eV0

(11)

pv0 = ava

where eV < 0 and a is the distance of closest approach to

the probe of radius Rp . Solving, we obtain
mva2

= mv02 1 +

Va
,
V0

1/ 2

V
v
p = a a = a 1 + a
v0
V0

.(12)

If a Rp, the ion is collected; thus, the effective probe

radius is p(Rp). For monoenergetic particles, the flux to a
2

F.F. Chen, Phys. Plasmas 8, 3029 (2001).

F.F. Chen, J.D. Evans, and D. Arnush, Phys. Plasmas 9, 1449 (2002)
4
I.D. Sudit and F.F. Chen, RF compensated probes for high-density discharges, Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 3,
162 (1994).
5
N. Hershkowitz, How Langmuir Probes Work, in Plasma Diagnostics, Vol. 1, Ed. by O. Auciello and D.L. Flamm
(Acad. Press, N.Y., 1994), Chap. 3, p. 113.
3

Plasma Diagnostics

85
probe of length L is therefore
= 2 R p L(1 + Va / V0 )1/ 2 r ,

(13)

where r is the random flux of ions of that energy.

Langmuir then extended this result to energy distributions which were Maxwellian at some large distance r = s
from the probe, where s is the sheath edge. The random flux r is then given by the usual formula
1/ 2

KTi
r = n

2 M

(14)

With Ap defined as the probe area, integrating over all

velocities yields the cumbersome expression
s

= Ap r erf( ) + e [1 erf ( + ) ] ,
a

where

eV p / KTi,

(15)

a2
2
, a = Rp .
2
s a

Fortunately, there are small factors. In the limit s >> a,

when OML theory applies, if at all, we have << , and
for Ti 0, 1/ <<1. Expanding in Taylor series, we find
that the Ti dependences of and r cancel, and a finite
limiting value of the OML current exists, independently
of the value of Ti.
1/ 2

2 | eV p |
I

A
ne

p
Ti 0
M

(16)

Thus, the OML current is proportional to |Vp|1/2, and the I

V curve is a parabola, while the I2 V curve is a
straight line. This scaling is the result of conservation of
energy and angular momentum. Because ions have large
angular momentum at large distances, though they have
small velocities, they tend to orbit the probe and miss it.
The probe voltage draws them in. The value of Ti cancels out mathematically, but Ti has to be finite for this
physical mechanism to work.
The OML result, though simple, is very restricted
in applicability. Since the sheath radius s was taken to be
infinite, the density has to be so low that the sheath is
much larger than the probe. The potential variation V(r)
has to be gentle enough that there does not exist an absorption radius inside of which the E-field is so strong
that no ions can escape being collected. Except in very
tenuous plasmas, a well developed sheath and an absorp-

86

Part A7
tion radius exist, and OML theory is inapplicable.
Nonetheless, the I2 V dependence of Isat is often
observed and is mistakenly taken as evidence of orbital
motion.
ii) ABR theory. To do a proper sheath theory,
one has to solve Poissons equation for the potential V(r)
everywhere from the probe surface to r = . Allen,
Boyd, and Reynolds (ABR) simplified the problem by
assuming ab initio that Ti = 0, so that there are no orbital
motions at all: the ions are all drawn radially into the
probe. Originally, the ABR theory was only for spherical
probes, but it was later extended to cylindrical probes by
Chen1, as follows. Assume that the probe is centered at r
= 0 and that the ions start at rest from r = , where V = 0.
Poissons equation in cylindrical coordinates is
1 V
r
r r r

e
= ( ne ni ) ,
0

ne = n0eeV / KTe .

(17)

To electrons are assumed to be Maxwellian. To find ni,

let I be the total ion flux per unit length collected by the
probe. By current continuity, the flux per unit length at
any radius r is

= ni vi = I / 2 r , where vi = ( 2eV / M ) .

I 2eV
ni = =

vi 2 r M

Thus,

(18)

-1/2

(19)

Poissons equation can then be written

1 V
r
r r r

e I 2eV

0 2 r M

-1/2

n0eeV / KTe (20)

Defining

eV
,
KTe

1/ 2

KT
cs e
M

(21)

we can write this as

-1/2

KTe 1
e I ( 2 )

r
=

n
e
(22)

0
0 2 r cs
e r r r

or
-1/2

KT 1
I ( 2 )
0 2e
r
=
n0e r r r 2 r n0cs

e .

(23)

Plasma Diagnostics

87
The Debye length appears on the left-hand side as the
natural length for this equation. We therefore normalize
r to D by defining a new variable :

1/ 2

KT
D 0 2e
ne
0

(24)

Eq. (23) now becomes

I 1
( 2 )-1/2 e

=
2 r n0cs
I
1
=
( 2 )-1/2 e
2 n0 D cs
1/ 2

I n0e2 M
=

2 n0 0 KTe KTe

( 2 )1/2 e

eI M

e
2 KTe 2 0n0
(25)
Defining
1/2

eI M
J

2 KTe 2 0n0

(26)

we arrive at the ABR equation for cylindrical probes:

-

= J e .

(27)

For each assumed value of J (normalized probe current),

this equation can be integrated from = to any arbiFig. 15. ABR curves for ().
trarily small . The point on the curve where = p (the
probe radius) gives the probe potential p for that value
of J. By computing a family of curves for different J
(Fig. 15), one can obtain a J p curve for a probe of
radius p by cross-plotting (Fig 16). Of course, both J
and p depend on the unknown density n0, which one is
trying to determine from the measured current Ii. (KTe is
supposed to be known from the electron characteristic.)
The extraction of n0 from these universal curves is a
trivial matter for a computer. In the graphs the quantity
Fig. 16. VI curves derived from (). Jp is plotted, since that is independent of n0. Note that
for small values of p, I2 varies linearly with Vp, as in
OML theory, but for entirely different reasons, since
there is no orbiting here.

88

Part A7

Fig. 17. Definition of absorption

radius.

Fig. 18. Effective potential seen by

ions with angular momentum J.

iii) BRL theory. The first probe theory which

accounted for both sheath formation and orbital motions
was published by Bernstein and Rabinowitz (BR), who
assumed an isotropic distribution of ions of a single energy Ei. This was further refined by Laframboise (L),
who extended the calculations to a Maxwellian ion distribution at temperature Ti. The BRL treatment is considerably more complicated than the ABR theory. In
ABR, all ions strike the probe, so the flux at any radius
depends on the conditions at infinity, regardless of the
probe radius. That is why there is a set of universal
curves. In BRL theory, however, the probe radius must
be specified beforehand, since those ions that orbit the
probe will contribute twice to the ion density at any
given radius r, while those that are collected contribute
only once. The ion density must be known before Poissons equation can be solved, and clearly this depends on
the presence of the probe. There is an absorption radius (Fig. 17), depending on J, inside of which all ions
are collected. Bernstein solved the problem by expressing the ion distribution in terms of energy E and angular
momentum J instead of vr and v. Ions with a given J
see an effective potential barrier between them and the
probe. They must have enough energy to surmount this
barrier before they can be collected. In Fig. 18, the lowest curve is for ions with J = 0; these simply fall into the
probe. Ions with finite J see a potential hill. With sufficient energy, they can climb the hill and fall to the probe
on the other side. The dashed line through the maxima
shows the absorption radius for various values of J.
The computation tricky and tedious. It turns out
that KTi makes little difference if Ti/Te < 0.1 or so, as it
usually is. Laframboises extension to a Maxwellian ion
distribution is not normally necessary; nonetheless, Laframboise gives the most complete results. Fig. 19
shows an example of ion saturation curves from the BRL
theory. One sees that for large probes (Rp/D >>1) the
ion current saturates well, since the sheath is thin. For
small Rp/D, Ii grows with increasing Vp as the sheath radius increases.
One might think that the ABR result would be
recovered if takes Ti = 0 or Ei = 0 in the BRL computation. However, this happens only for spherical probes.
For cylindrical probes, there is a problem of nonuniform
convergence. Since the angular momentum is Mvr, for r
ions with zero thermal velocity have J = (M)(0)(),
an indeterminate form. The correct treatment is to calculate the probe current for Ti > 0 and then take the limit Ti

Plasma Diagnostics

89
0, as BRL have done. The BRL predictions have been
borne out in experiments in fully ionized plasmas, but
not in partially ionized ones.

Fig. 19. Laframboise curves for Ii V

characteristics in dimensionless units,
in the limit of cold ions. Each curve is
for a different ratio Rp/D.
6
BRL
m W ave
BRL*ABR

-3

cm )

ABR

Density (10

11

4
3
2
1
0
200

400

600

800

100

P rf (W )

Fig. 20. Comparison of n measured

with microwaves with probes using
two different probe theories.
2.5

I (mA)

4/3

2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
-70

-60

-50

-40

-30
V

-20

-10

10

Fig. 21. Extrapolation to get Ii at Vf.

6
Ne(MW)
Ni(CL)
Ni(ABR)
Ne,sat

n (1011cm-3)

5
4

10 mTorr

3
2
1
0
300

450

600
Prf (W)

750

900

Fig. 22. Comparison of microwave

and probe densities using the floating
potential method (CL), ABR theory,
and Ie,sat.

iv) Comparison among theories. It is not reasonable to reproduce the ABR or BRL computations
each time one makes a probe measurement. Chen2 has
solved this problem by parametrizing the ABR and BRL
curves so that the Ii V curve can be easily be created for
any value of Rp/D. One can then compute the plasma
density from the probe data using the ABR and BRL
theories and compare with the density measured with microwave interferometry. Such a comparison is shown in
Fig. 20. One sees that the ABR theory predicts too low a
density because orbiting is neglected, and therefore the
predicted current is too high and the measured current is
identified with a lower density. Conversely, BRL theory
predicts too high a density because it assumes more orbiting than actually occurs, so that the measured current
is identified with a high density. This effect occurs in
partially ionized plasmas because the ions suffer chargeexchange collisions far from the probe, outside the
sheath, thus losing their angular momentum. The BRL
theory assumes that the ions retain their angular momentum all the way in from infinity. One might expect
the real density to lie in between, and indeed, it agrees
quite well with the geometric mean of the BRL and ABR
densities.
Treating the charge-exchange collisions rigorously in the presheath would be an immense problem,
but recently Chen et al.3 have found an even easier, fortuitous, way to estimate the plasma density in ICPs and
other processing discharges. The method relies on finding the ion current at floating potential Vf by extrapolating on a graph of Ii4/3 vs. Vp, as shown in Fig. 21. The
power 4/3 is chosen because it usually leads to a straight
line graph. At Vp = Vf, let the sheath thickness d be given
by the Child-Langmuir formula of Eq. (A4-7) with V0 =
Vf. The sheath area is then A = 2(Rp+d)L. If the ions
enter the sheath at velocity cs with density ns = n0cs, the
ion current is Ii = n0eAcs, and n can easily be calculated
from the extrapolated value of Ii(Vf). Note that if Rp <<
d, Eq. (A4-7) predicts the Ii4/3 Vp dependence (but this
is accidental). (Since d D n1/2, n has to be found
by iteration or by solving a quadratic equation.) The
density in a 10 mTorr ICP discharge is shown in Fig. 22,
compared to n measured by microwaves, by probes using
the ABR theory, or by probes using the saturation electron current. The Vf(CL) method fits best, though the fit

90

Part A7
is not always this good. The OML theory (not shown)
also fits poorly. Though this is a fast and easy method to
interpret Isat curves, it is hard to justify because the CL
formula of Eq. (A4-7) applies to planes, not cylinders,
and the Debye sheath thickness has been neglected, as
well as orbiting and collisions. This simple-minded approach apparently works because the neglected effects
cancel one another. From the preceding discussion, it is
clear that the rigorous theories, ABR and BRL, can err
by a factor of 2 or more in the value of n in partially
ionized plasmas. There are heuristic methods, but these
may not work in all conditions. It is difficult for Langmuir probes to give a value of n accurate to better than
1020%; fortunately, such accuracy is not often required.
6. Distribution functions
Since the ion current is insensitive to Ti, Langmuir probes cannot measure ion temperature, and certainly not the ion velocity distribution. However, careful
measurement of the transition region of the I V characteristic can reveal the electron distribution if it is isotropic. If the probe surface is a plane perpendicular to x,
the electron flux entering the sheath depends only on the
x component of velocity, vx. For instance, the Maxwell
distribution for vx is
1
2 2
2
f M (v x ) =
exp( v x / vth ), vth 2 KTe / m .
vth
(28)
The coefficient normalizes f(v) so that its integral over all
vxs is unity. If f(v) is not Maxwellian, it will have another form and another coefficient in front. The electron
current that can get over the Coulomb barrier and be
collected by the probe will therefore be
I e = eAn

v min

v x f (v x )dv x , mv 2min = e(Vs V p ) = eV p

(29)
where vmin is the minimum energy of an electron that can
reach the probe, and Vs = 0 by definition. Taking the derivative and simplifying, we find

Fig. 23. EEDF curves obtained with a

Langmuir probe in a TCP discharge
[Godyak et al. J. Appl. Phys. 85,
3081, (1999)].

dI e
dv
d
= eAn
v x f (v x ) x dV p
dV p
dV p vmin
dV p

= eAn v x f (v x )

dv x
dV p

v x =v min

Plasma Diagnostics

91
dI e
e
ne2
= eAn v x f (v x )
=A
f (v min ) ,(30)
dV p
mv x v = v
m
min
x
so that f(vx) can be found from the first derivative of the I
V curve. If the probe is not flat, however, one has to
take the three-dimensional distribution g(v) = 4v2f(v),
where v is the absolute value |v| of the velocity, and take
into account the various angles if incidence. Without
going into the details, we then find, surprisingly, that f(v)
is proportional to the second derivative of the I V
curve:
d 2 Ie

Fig. 24. An I V curve of a biMaxwellian EEDF.

Electron current

dV p2

-20

-10

Vp - Vs

10

20

30

(a)
Te = 3 eV
Helium

Electron Current

Vrf V)
0
5
10
15

0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
-0.1
-20

-15

-10

-5
eV/KTe

(31)

This result is valid for any convex probe shape as long as

the distribution is isotropic, and for any anisotropic distribution if the probe is spherical. To differentiate I V
data twice will yield noisy results unless a good deal of
smoothing is employed. Alternatively, one can dither the
probe voltage by modulating it at a low frequency, and
the signal at the dither frequency will be proportional to
the first derivative. In that case, only one further derivative has to be taken to get f(v). Figure 23 is an example
of non-Maxwellian f(v)s obtained by double differentiation with digital filtering.
In special cases where the EEDF consists of two
Maxwellians with well separated temperatures, the two
KTes can be obtained by straight-line fits on the semilog
I V curve without complicated analysis. An example of
this is shown in Fig. 24.

0.5
0.4

f (v)

10

(b)
Fig. 25 . (a) The center curve is the
correct I V curve. The dashed ones
are displaced by 5V, representing
changes in Vs. At the vertical lines,
the average Ie between the displaced
curves is shown by the dot. The line
through the dots is the time-averaged
I V curve that would be observed,
differing greatly from the correct
curve. (b) Computed I V curves for
sinusoidal Vs oscillations of various
amplitudes.

7. RF compensation
Langmuir probes used in RF plasma sources are
subject to RF pickup which can greatly distort the I V
characteristic and give erroneous results. ECR sources
which operate in the microwave regime do not have this
trouble because the frequency is so high that it is completely decoupled from the circuitry, and the measured
currents are the same as in a DC discharge. However, in
RF plasmas, the space potential can fluctuate is such a
way that the circuitry responds incorrectly. The problem
is that the I V characteristic is nonlinear. The V is
actually the potential difference Vp Vs , where Vp is a
DC potential applied to the probe, and Vs is a potential
that can fluctuate at the RF frequency and its harmonics.
If one displaces the I V curve horizontally back and

92

Part A7
forth around a center value V0, the average current I
measured will not be I(V0), since I varies exponentially in
the transition region and also changes slope rapidly as it
enters the ion and electron saturation regions. The effect
of this is to make the I V curve wider, leading to a
falsely high value of Te and shifting the floating potential
Vf to a more negative value. This is illustrated in Fig. 25.

Several methods are available to correct for this.

One is to tap off a sinusoidal RF signal from the power
supply and mix this with the probe signal with variable
phase and amplitude. When the resultant I V curve
gives the lowest value of Te, one has probably simulated
the Vs oscillations. This method has the disadvantage
that the Vs oscillations can contain more than one harmonic. A second method is to measure the Vs oscillations with another probe or section of the wall which is
Fig. 26. Design of a dogleg probe.
floating, and add that signal to the probe current signal
with variable phase and amplitude. The problem with
this method is that the Vs fluctuations are generally not
the same everywhere. A third method is to isolate the
probe tip from the rest of the circuit with an RF choke
(inductor), so that the probe tip is floating at RF frequencies but is fixed at the DC probe bias at low frequencies.
The problem is that the probe tip does not draw enough
current to fill the stray capacitances that connect it to
ground at RF frequencies. One way is to place a large
slug of metal inside the insulator between the probe tip
and the chokes. This metal slug has a large area and
therefore picks up enough charge from the Vs oscillations
to drive the probe tip to follow them. However, we have
found4 that the best way is to use an external floating
Fig. 27. I V curves taken with and electrode, which could be a few turns of wire around the
probe insulator, and connect it through a capacitor to a
without an auxiliary electrode.
point between the probe tip and the chokes. The charge
collected by this comparatively large probe is then sufficient to drive the probe tip so that Vp - Vs remains constant. Note that this auxiliary electrode supplies only the
RF voltage; the dc part is still supplied by the external
power supply. The design of the chokes is also critical:
they must have high enough Q to present a resonantly
high impedance at both the fundamental and the second
harmonic of the RF frequency. This is the reason there
are two pairs of chokes in Fig. 9. One pair is resonant at
, and the other at 2. Two chokes are used in series to
increase the Q. A compromise has to be made between
high Q and small physical size of the chokes. Figure 26
shows a dogleg design, which permits scans in two directions. Figure 27 shows an I V curve taken with and
without the auxiliary electrode, showing that the chokes

Plasma Diagnostics

themselves are usually insufficient.

Without proper RF compensation, Langmuir
probe data in RF discharges can give spurious data on Te,
Vf, and f(v). However, if one needs to find only the
plasma density, the probe can be biased so that V never
leaves the ion saturation region, which is linear enough
that the average Isat will be the correct value.

Fig. 28. A double probe.

93

Fig. 29. A hot probe.

8. Double probes and hot probes5

When Vs fluctuates slowly, one can use the
method of double probes, in which two identical probes
are inserted into the plasma in close proximity, and the
current from one to the other is measured as a function of
the voltage difference between them. The I V characteristic is then symmetrical and limited to the region between the Isats on each probe. If the probe array floats
up and down with the RF oscillations, the I V curve
should not be distorted. This method does not work well
in RF plasmas because it is almost impossible to make
the whole two-probe system float at RF frequencies because of the large stray capacitance to ground. Even if
both tips are RF compensated, the RF impedances must
be identical.
Hot probes are small filaments that can be heated
to emit electrons. These electrons, which have very low
energies corresponding to the KT of the filament, cannot
leave the probe as long as Vp Vs is positive. As soon as
Vp Vs goes negative, however, the thermionic current
leaves the probe, and the probe current is dominated by
this rather than by the ion current. Where the I V curve
crosses the x axis, therefore, is a good measure of Vs.
The voltage applied to the filament to heat it can be
eliminated by turning it off and taking the probe data before the filament cools. One can also heat the probe by
bombarding it with ions at a very large negative Vp, and
then switching this voltage off before the measurement.
In general it is tricky to make hot probes small enough.
For further information on these techniques and on behavior of Langmuir probes in RF plasmas, the reader is
referred to the chapter by Hershkowitz5.
XIII. OTHER LOCAL DIAGNOSTICS
1. Magnetic probes
a) Principle of operation. Fluctuating RF magnetic fields inside the plasma can be measured with a
magnetic probe, which is a small coil of wire, perhaps 2
mm in diameter, covered with glass or ceramic so as to
protect it from direct exposure to charged particles.

94

Part A7
When the coil is placed in a time-varying magnetic field
B, an electric field is induced along the wire according
to Faradays Law:
E = dB / dt .

(32)

Integrating this over the surface enclosed by the coil with

the help of Stokes theorem to convert the surface integral to a line integral, we obtain

B! dS ! = ( E) dS = E d" Vind .

(33)

Here the line integral is along the wire in the coil and
is the magnetic flux through the coil, which is BA,
where A is the area of the coil. The induced voltage Vind
is measured by a high-impedance device like an oscilloscope. If there are N turns in the coil, the voltage will be
N times higher; hence,
Vind = NAB!

(34)

The dot indicates the time-derivative and is the origin of

the name B-dot probe. The minus sign indicates that
the induced electric field is in the opposite direction to
that obtained when the right-hand rule is applied to B.
For a sinusoidal signal, B-dot is proportional to B, so
that the probe is more sensitive to higher frequencies. To
obtain B from the measured Vind, one can use a simple
integrator consisting of a resistor and a capacitor to
ground to obtain
1
B=
Vind dt .
(35)
NA

One only has to be sure that the RC time constant of the

integrator is much longer than the period of the signal.
Fig. 30. A magnetic probe with a
balun transformer.

b) Construction. The probe itself can be as

simple as ten turns of thin wire wound on a core machined out of boron nitride. The coil can be placed inside a ceramic tube or a closed glass tube. Such a tube is
necessarily larger than a Langmuir probe shaft and may
disturb the plasma downstream from the source. If the
axis of the coil is parallel to the tube, the component of B
parallel to the shaft will be measured. If the coil axis is
perpendicular to the shaft, one can change from Br to B
measurement by rotating the shaft by 90. Sometimes
three coils are mounted in the same shaft to measure all
three B components at the same time.

Plasma Diagnostics

95
The difficult part is to take the signal out through
the probe shaft without engendering too much RF
pickup. One way is to use a very thin rigid coax, which
is then connected to the scope with a 50- cable. The
coil in this case can be a single turn formed from the
center conductor looped around and soldered to the conducting shield. If the shaft has to traverse a long path
through the plasma, a better way is to use a multi-turn
coil to increase the signal voltage, and then bring the two
ends of the coils through the shaft with a twisted pair of
wires. Outside the plasma, the wires are connected to a
balun (balanced-to-unbalanced) 1-to-1 transformer so
that the signal can be carried to the scope with an unbalanced line. Such a probe is shown in Fig. 30. The transformer can also have a turns ratio that amplifies the signal voltage. With magnetic probes there is always the
danger of capacitive pickup through the insulators. One
can check this by rotating the probe 180. The magnetic
signal should be the same in magnitude but shifted 180
in phase, while the capacitive signal would be the same
in both orientations. Whether or not the probe and leads
should be shielded with slotted conductors is a matter of
experimentation; the shield can help or actually make the
pickup worse.

C
G1

G2

G3

Fig. 31. A gridded energy analyzer.

2. Energy analyzers
Gridded energy analyzers are used to obtain better data for ion and electron energy distributions than can
be obtained with Langmuir probes. However, these instruments are necessarily largeat least 1 cubic centimeter in volumeand will disturb the plasma downstream from them. A standard gridded analyzer has four
grids: 1) a grounded or floating outer grid to isolate the
analyzer from the plasma, 2) a grid with positive or
negative potential to repel the unwanted species, 3) a
solid collector with variable potential connected to the
current measuring device, and 4) a suppressor grid in
front of the collector to repel secondary electrons. In
Fig. 31, s is the sheath edge. Grid G1, whether floating
or grounded, will be negative with respect to the plasma,
and therefore will repel all electrons except the most energetic ones. One cannot bias this grid positively, since
it will then draw so much electron current that the plasma
will be disturbed. It is sometime omitted in order to allow
slower electrons to enter the analyzer. Grid G1 also
serves to attenuate the flux of plasma into the analyzer so
that the Debye length is not so short there that subsequent grid wires will be shielded out. In the space be-

96

Part A7
hind Grid G1, there will be a distribution of ions which
have been accelerated by the sheath but which still has
the original relative energy distribution (unless it has
been degraded by scattering off the grid wires). These
are neutralized by electrons that have also come through
G1. These electrons also have the original relative energy distribution, but they all have been decelerated by
the sheath. Grid G2 is set positive to repel ions and
negative to repel electrons. For example, to obtain fi(v),
we would set G2 sufficiently negative (V2) to repel all the
electrons. The ions will then be further accelerated toward the collector. This collecting plate C, at Vc, would
collect all the ion current if it were at the same potential
as V2. By biasing it more and more positive relative to
V2, only the most energetic ions would be collected. The
curve of I vs. Vc would then give fi(v) when it is differentiated. When ions strike the collector, secondary electrons can be emitted, and these will be accelerated away
from the collector by the field between C and G2, leading
to a false enhancement of the apparent ion current. To
prevent this, Grid G3 is fixed at a small negative potential (about 2V) relative to C) so that these electrons are
turned back. Variations to this standard configuration are
also possible.
Fig. 32. Energy analyzer with only
one grid and a collector

Faraday shield
co p p erfo il

In a plasma with RF fluctuations, energy analyzers would suffer from nonlinear averaging, just as Langmuir probes do. Because of their large size, and therefore stray capacitance, it would not be practical to drive
the grids of an energy analyzer to follow changes in
plasma potential at the RF frequency. However, one can
design the circuitry to be fast enough to follow the RF
and then record the oscillations in collected current as a
function of time during each RF cycle. By selecting data
from the same RF phase to perform the analysis, one can,
in principle, obtain the true energy distribution. This
technique cannot be used for Langmuir probes, because
the currents there are so small that the required frequency
response cannot be obtained. RF-sensitive energy analyzers have been made successfully by at least two
groups; one such analyzer is shown in Fig. 32.
3. RF current probe

Return loop

Fig. 33. Construction of an RF current probe.

Current probes, sometimes called Rogowski coils,

are coils of wire wound on a toroidal coil form shaped
like a Life Saver. Figure 33 shows such a coil. Current
passing through the hole induces a magnetic field in the
azimuthal direction, and this, in turn, induces a voltage in
the turns of wire. The current driven through the wire is

Plasma Diagnostics

97
then measured in an external circuit. The coil must take a
return loop the long way around the torus to cancel the
B-dot pickup that is induced by B-fields that thread the
hole. Current probes are usually large and can be bought
as attachments to an oscilloscope, but these are unsuitable for insertion into a plasma. The probe shown here is
not only small (~1 cm diam) but is also made for RF frequencies. It is covered with a Faraday shield to reduce
electrostatic pickup, and the windings are carefully calibrated so that the B-dot and E-dot signals are small compared with the J-dot signal. An example of a J-dot
measurement was shown in Fig A6-17.

Fig. 34.
Schematic of a POP
[Shirakawa and Sugai, Jpn. J. Appl.
Phys. 32, 5129 (1993)].

Fig. 35. Peak at p (at the right) moves

as Prf is increased [ibid.].

4. Plasma oscillation probe

When used in a plasma processing reactor,
Langmuir probes tend to get covered with insulating
coatings so that they can no longer properly measure dc
current. A plasma oscillation probe avoids this by measuring only ac signals, which can pass capacitively
through the coatings. A filament, like a hot probe (Fig.
34), is heated to emission and biased to ~100V negatively to send an electron beam into the plasma. Such a
beam excites plasma waves near p. These highfrequency oscillations are picked up by a probe and observed on a spectrum analyzer. If a peak in the response
can be detected (Fig. 35), it will likely be near = p,
and this gives the plasma density. Various spurious effects, such as multiple peaks or surface waves, can cause
the resonant to differ from p, but when the signal is
clear, a good estimate of n can be obtained.