Experimental and numerical studies of microwave-plasma interaction in a MWPECVD reactor

This work deals with and proposes a simple and compact diagnostic method able to characterize the interaction between microwave and plasma without the necessity of using an external diagnostic tool. The interaction between 2.45 GHz microwave and plasma, in a typical ASTeX-type reactor, is investigated from experimental and numerical view points. The experiments are performed by considering plasmas of three different gas mixtures: H2, CH4-H2 and CH4-H2-N2. The two latter are used to deposit synthetic undoped and n-doped diamond films. The experimental setup equipped with a matching network enables the measurements of very low reflected power. The reflected powers show ripples due to the mismatching between wave and plasma impedance. Specifically, the three types of plasma exhibit reflected power values related to the variation of electron-neutral collision frequency among the species by changing the gas mixture. The different gas mixtures studied are also useful to test the sensitivity of the reflected power measurements to the change of plasma composition. By means of a numerical model, only the interaction of microwave and H2 plasma is examined allowing the estimation of plasma and matching network impedances and of reflected power that is found about eighteen times higher than that measured.