Towards deeper understanding of an HiPIMS discharge by time-resolved optical plasma diagnostics

As a promising pulsed sputter deposition technique, High-Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS) required an extensive time-resolved plasma characterization. Being essentially non-intrusive, optical plasma diagnostics methods posses in particular the timeand spaceresolution(s) which normally exceed the typical needs of a typical HiPIMS geometry [1] and, therefore, can be readily applied for characterization of the high-power pulsed discharges. Our recent progress on time-resolved study of a HiPIMS discharge is presented in this work. The selected Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES), Resonance Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (ROAS), and Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF) results are reported. Several parameters, such as the absolute densities of the sputtered species, gas temperature, velocity distribution function of the sputtered species are described. The schematic representation of the studied magnetron discharge system for the implementation of LIF diagnostics [2] is given in Fig. 1. The analyzed plasma regions in case of LIF are nearly cylindrical with the width of about 5 mm and length of about 10 cm. For OES and ROAS diagnostics the probed plasma volume had the width of about 1 cm and was located at about 5 cm above the magnetron target.