Quadrupole mass spectrometric study of positive ions from RF plasmas of pure CH4, CH4/H2, and CH4/Ar systems

Quadrupole mass spectrometry has been employed to characterize the ionic species in the discharges of pure CH₄, CH₄/H₂, and CH₄/Ar systems. For pure methane, the major positive ions in the discharge at low pressure (e.g., 0.15 torr) are CH ₃ ⁺ , C₂H ₃ ⁺ , CH ₂ ⁺ , C₂H ₂ ⁺ , CH ₄ ⁺ , C₂H ₄ ⁺ , and C₂H ₅ ⁺ at high pressure (e.g., 0.5 torr) the major ions are CH ₃ ⁺ , C₂H ₃ ⁺ , C₂H ₅ ⁺ , C₃H ₃ ⁺ , C H₃H ₇ ⁺ , C₄H ₇ ⁺ , C₅H ₇ ⁺ , C₆H ₅ ⁺ , and C₇H ₇ ⁺ . The relative abundances of C₁ ions decrease with increasing pressure, whereas those of higher-order ions increase with pressure. For 5% CH₄ + 95% H₂ mixture, in addition to those sampling from the pure methane plasma at the lower pressure, H _n ⁺ ions have also been detected. For 5% CH₄ +95% Ar mixture, the principal ions are CH ₃ ⁺ , CH ₂ ⁺ , CH⁺, CH ₅ ⁺ , Ar⁺, and ArH⁺; the ions containing more than two carbon atoms are negligible. In these discharges, the CH ₃ ⁺ and C₂H ₃ ⁺ are the most important positive ions in C₁ and C₂ ions, respectively. The ions detected are believed to come from the sheath between the electrode and the luminous plasma, and have high kinetic energy. An ion-molecule reaction mechanism is proposed which can well explain the observed main features of ionic products.Died June 1, 1991.