• Macromolecular Research
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.608-614
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• 2004

Isotactic polypropylene (PP) surfaces were modified with argon and oxygen plasmas using a radio­frequency (RF) glow discharge at 240 mTorr and 40 W. The changes in topography and surface structure were investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM) in conjunction with specular reflectance of infrared (IR) microspectroscopy. Under our operating conditions, the AFM image analysis revealed that longer plasma treatment resulted in significant ablation on the PP surface, regardless of the kind of plasma employed, but the topography was dependent on the nature of the gases. Specular reflectance IR spectroscopic analysis indicated that the constant removal of surface material was an important ablative aspect when using either plasma, but the nature of the ablative behavior and the resultant aging effects were clearly dependent on the choice of plasma. The use of argon plasma resulted in a negligible aging effect; in contrast, the use of oxygen plasma caused a noticeable aging effect, which was due to reactions of trapped or isolated radicals with oxygen in air, and was partly responsible for the increased surface area caused by ablation. The use of oxygen plasma is believed to be an advantageous approach to modifying polymeric materials with functionalized surfaces, e.g., for surface grafting of unsaturated monomers and incorporating oxygen-containing groups onto PP.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.134-140
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• 2004

Semi-crystalline poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) film surfaces were modified with argon and oxygen plasmas by radio-frequency (RF) glow discharge at 240 mTorr/40 W; the changes in topography and surface structure were investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM) in conjunction with specular reflectance of infrared microspectroscopy (IMS). Under our operating conditions, analysis of the AFM images revealed that longer plasma treatment results in significant ablation on the film surface with increasing roughness, regardless of the kind of plasma used. The basic topographies, however, were different depending upon the kind of gas used. The specular reflectance analysis showed that the ablative mechanisms of the argon and oxygen plasma treatments are entirely different with one another. For the Ar-plasma-treated PET surface, no observable difference in the chemical structure was observed before and after plasma treatment. On the other hand, the oxygen-plasma-treated PET surface displays a significant decrease in the number of aliphatic C-H groups. We conclude that a constant removal of material from the PET surface occurs when using the Ar-plasma, whereas preferential etching of aliphatic C-H groups, with respect to, e.g. , carbonyl and ether groups, occurs upon oxygen plasma.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.31-37
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• 2009

This paper presents one and two dimensional simulation results with discontinuous features (shocks) of capacitively coupled rf plasmas. The model consists of the first two and three moments of the Boltzmann equation for the ion and electron fluids respectively, coupled to Poisson's equation for the self-consistent electric field. The local field and drift-diffusion approximations are not employed, and as a result the charged species conservation equations are hyperbolic in nature. Hyperbolic equations may develop discontinuous solutions even if their initial conditions are smooth. Indeed, in this work, secondary electron emission is shown to produce transient electron shock waves. These shocks form at the boundary between the cathodic sheath (CS) and the quasi-neutral (QN) bulk region. In the CS, the electrons emitted from the electrode are accelerated to supersonic velocities due to the large electric field. On the other hand, in the QN the electric field is not significant and electrons have small directed velocities. Therefore, at the transition between these regions, the electron fluid decelerates from a supersonic to a subsonic velocity in the direction of flow and a jump in the electron velocity develops. The presented numerical results are consistent with both experimental observations and kinetic simulations.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.112-118
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• 2001

Magnetic field is commonly used in low temperature processing plasmas to enhance the performance of the plasma reactors. E$\times$B magnetron or surface multipole configuration is the most popular. However, the properties of capacitively coupled rf plasma confined by axial static magnetic field have rarely been studied. With these background, the effect of magnetic field on the characteristics of capacitively coupled 13.56 MHz/40 KHz argon plasma was studied, Ion saturation current, electron temperature and plasma potential were measured by Langmuir probe and emissive probe. At low pressure region (~10 mTorr), ion current increases by a factor of 3-4 due to reduction of diffusion loss of charged particles to the wall. Electron temperature slightly increases with magnetic field for 13.56 MHz discharge. However, for 40 KHz discharge, electron temperature decreased from 1.8 eV to 0.8 eV with magnetic field. It was observed that the magnetic field induces large temporal variation of the plasma potential. Particle in cell simulation was performed to examine the behaviors of the space potential. Experimental and simulation results agreed qualitatively.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1999.11d
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• pp.1066-1068
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• 1999

Magnetic field is commonly used in low temperature processing plasmas in order to obtain high density. E $\times$ B magnetron or surface multipole configuration were most popular. However, the properties of capacitively coupled rf plasma confined by axially applied static magnetic fields have rarely been studied. In this paper, the effects of magnetic field on the characteristics of 13.56MHz/40KHz argon plasma will be reported. Ion saturation current, electron temperature and plasma potential were measured by Langmuir probe and omissive probe. At low pressure region ($\sim$10mTorr), ion current was increased by a factor of 3 - 4 due to reduction of diffusion loss of charged particles to the wall. It was observed that magnetic field induces large time variation of the plasma potential. The experimental result was compared with particle-in-cell simulation. It was also observed that electron temperature tend to decrease with increasing magnetic induction level for 40KHz discharge.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.214-215
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• 2007

Etch rates and surface chemistry of phenol formaldehyde-based photoresist after short time $O_2\;and\;N_2O$ radio frequency (RF) plasma treatment depending on exposure time were investigated. It was found that the etch rate of photoresist sharply increased after discharge turn on and reached a limit with increase in plasma exposure time in both gases. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis showed that the surface chemical structure become nearly constant after the treatment of 15 sec. Concentration of surface oxygen-containing groups after processing both in oxygen and in $N_2O$ plasmas is similar.

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.28-34
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• 2004

The polarizing film application exploits the unique physicochemical properties between PVA(Poly vinyl alcohol) film and CTA(Cellulose triacetate) film. However, hardly any research was aimed at improving the adhesion characteristics of the CTA film by radio frequency(RF) plasma treatment at argon(Ar) gaseous state. In this report, we deal with surface treatment technology for protective CTA film developed specifically for high adhesion applications. After Ar plasma, surface of the films is analyzed by atomic force microscopy(AFM), roughness parameter and peel strength. Furthermore, the wetting properties of the CTA film were studied by contact angle analysis. Results obtained for CTA films treated with a glow discharge showed that this technique is sensitive to newly created physical functions. The roughness and peel strength value increased with an increase in treatment time for initial treatment, but showed decreasing trend for continuous treatment time. The result of contact angle measurement refer that the hydrophilicity of surface was increased. AFM studies indicated that no considerable change of surface morphology occurred up to 3 minutes of treatment time, but a considerable uneven of surface structure resulted from treating time after 5 minutes.