Determination of the atomic nitrogen flux from a radio frequency plasma nitride source for molecular beam epitaxy systems

Abstract

Direct measurements of both the dissociation fraction and the atom flux have been carried out for the first time to characterize a radio frequency (rf) atomic nitrogen source. The measurements have been made over a range of source pressures and rf powers. Dissociation fractions of up to 0.4 and atomic nitrogen fluxes of up to 0.85×1018 atom s−1 were obtained. In addition these results have been correlated with spectroscopic measurements of the ratios of atomic and molecular optical emissions from the source plasma in order to provide a way of estimating in situ the atomic flux.