Numerical investigation of the production mechanism of a low-temperature electron cyclotron resonance plasma

The mechanism to decrease the electron temperature in an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma was numerically investigated using a fluid model. A mixture of argon and nitrogen was used as the working gas under the assumption of plasma nitriding by reactive sputtering. It was found that the power loss due to the vibrational excitation of nitrogen molecules by electron impact contributed to the decrease of electron temperature and the effect was promoted by the application of a mirror-type magnetic field configuration.