Optical studies of gold-carbon plasma deposition

Abstract

Emission spectroscopy in a parallel plate capacitively coupled RF discharge has been studied in propane-argon mixtures. Two kinds of emission spectra were recorded. The overall discharge was studied without any spatially resolved measurement and different spatial regions of the plasma were viewed from the cathode to the glow region. Carbon, argon, gold, hydrogen atoms and a CH radical were observed. Special attention was devoted to the spatial variation of argon, hydrogen and the CH radical for the purpose of understanding the anomalous CH emission in the 'plasma dark space'. Various plasma excitations are evaluated and discussed.