Control and mass selection of CnHm+ fragments in an inductively coupled pulsed plasma

We report on a method of selecting CnHm+ fragments using a pulsed inductively coupled plasma (ICP) driven by a rf supply and a pulse control unit providing user-defined on/off regimes. Langmuir probe and mass-energy spectrometric data show that the characteristics of the plasma can be monitored so demonstrating that hydrocarbon clusters of different C:H ratios and abundances can be generated preferentially by using appropriately chosen on/off regimes. Postdeposition x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis underlines clearly the influence of the deposition regimes, on the structure and composition of CxNy:H films grown via CnHm+ clusters generated using adamantane (C10H16) vapor in an argon/nitrogen mixture. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.