Microwave sputtering of conductors and insulators for optical emission and mass spectrometry

A microwave-powered slab-line cavity was used to excite a discharge in low pressure argon or neon and to demonstrate the sputtering of conducting and non-conducting samples by a microwave excited discharge. Both optical emission spectroscopy and mass spectrometry were used as detection systems. The dependence of the signals on gas pressure and net microwave power was investigated.     

High resolution FTS studies of glow discharge spectra line profiles and line widths

High resolution studies using Fourier transform spectrometry of the spectra emitted in the visible and ultraviolet regions by a microwave boosted glow discharge source have shown that when the source is operated in the dc (unboosted) mode, two anomalous forms of line profile occur for some analyte elements. (1) Some Fe I lines appear to have a triangular base of half-width about five times greater than that of the line proper. (2) Some Fe II and Ti II lines exhibit satellites about 8 cm(-1) wide and an intensity of up to 2% of the peak value on either side of the main line. Both effects depend on the carrier gas and its pressure and are much less pronounced or even absent in the boosted mode. They could both affect the accuracy of analytical results, particularly for depth-profiling. Further studies are in progress.