Emission Spectroscopic Studies of Sputtering in a Low-Power Glow Discharge

The Ion sputtering In a glow discharge plasma Is Investigated by an emission spectroscopic method. Primary Ions (Ar⁺ Ions In our work), which collide with the cathode In a discharge tube, emit their characteristic radiation. The Intensities of Ar 11 emission lines, which are assigned to the optical transitions related to various excited levels, reflect the relative populations among different energy states and, therefore, the energy distribution among the projectile Ions. It Is useful to study how the emission Intensities of different kinds of Ar II lines depend on input power In order to compare each plasma condition created for some cathode materials (Ag, Cu, Ni, Co, and Fe). By use of the Ar⁺ Ion line analysis, it was found that when a glow lamp was operated at the same power level, similar sputtering conditions occurred for these elements. The emission Intensities of some lines of sputtered elements were recorded as a function of Input power, and the sputtering yield ratios of one element to the others were estimated from the intensity ratios for two related emission lines.