Simulation Data for Ion Interactions with Target Materials from Ion Beam and Plasma Systems
Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 12:04 am
Over the past three weeks or so I have been working on a variety of simulations to better understand and provide data on a variety of interactions and mechanisms between ions and surfaces interacting with the ions. These simulations range from simple stopping ranges to much more sophisticated modeling of sputtering, implantation, and target damage due to ions from a variety of sources, primarily ion beams and plasmas. The software used is SRIM 2013, along with the various tools and functionalities associated with the program. A wide variety of simulations will be explored and elaborated on, including ion loading from beam on target systems, surface interactions with DC glow discharge plasmas, sputtering yields from magnetron sputtering sources, and a variety of target materials and combinations with different ions.
To start, below are some very simple tables of ion ranges for several different ions in stainless steel. Note that these represent only mono-energetic energy distributions, with a single impinging angle upon the target surface. Therefore this only looks at the estimated maximum penetration range at each energy level for an angle perpendicular to the surface. For each case, data from 100eV to 1MeV are presented. This data was generated using the SR (Stopping Range) functionality of SRIM. Stainless steel was chosen as the starting material since this is the most commonly employed and largest bulk metal seen in high vacuum systems dealing with ion and plasmas, especially for fusors. I will upload more data specifically for different target materials and layering combinations, such as the commonly employed titanium self-loading target for beam-on-target systems as I progress in this area, along with full TRIM simulation results.
The next set of data that will be posted shortly includes much more advanced simulations utilizing the TRIM functionality of SRIM, exploiting the use of custom .DAT input files to generate ion parameters for estimating the effects of diffuse glow discharge plasmas across a wider area of stainless steel surface. This is used to explore the effects of sputtering and surface loading of stainless steel chambers when utilizing glow discharge cleaning to prepare the vacuum surfaces. The first set of simulation data looks at three different ion energy distribution inputs for nitrogen on stainless steel. These range from lower bound unrealistic estimates, to upper bound estimates, to an intermediate energy distribution that should account for a wide variation of system fluctuations and uncertainty during operation. This is used to determine and select an energy distribution for the next set of simulations exploring the differences in ion implantation concentrations and sputtering yields between hydrogen (as an analog to deuterium), nitrogen (as an analog to air), and argon (as a general comparison for a common gas used in sputtering and surface cleaning). All of the data along with a detailed write-up is already posted on my website, but I will post and elaborate on the important parameters here relevant to sputtering and surface loading effects for DC glow discharge cleaning.
To start, below are some very simple tables of ion ranges for several different ions in stainless steel. Note that these represent only mono-energetic energy distributions, with a single impinging angle upon the target surface. Therefore this only looks at the estimated maximum penetration range at each energy level for an angle perpendicular to the surface. For each case, data from 100eV to 1MeV are presented. This data was generated using the SR (Stopping Range) functionality of SRIM. Stainless steel was chosen as the starting material since this is the most commonly employed and largest bulk metal seen in high vacuum systems dealing with ion and plasmas, especially for fusors. I will upload more data specifically for different target materials and layering combinations, such as the commonly employed titanium self-loading target for beam-on-target systems as I progress in this area, along with full TRIM simulation results.
The next set of data that will be posted shortly includes much more advanced simulations utilizing the TRIM functionality of SRIM, exploiting the use of custom .DAT input files to generate ion parameters for estimating the effects of diffuse glow discharge plasmas across a wider area of stainless steel surface. This is used to explore the effects of sputtering and surface loading of stainless steel chambers when utilizing glow discharge cleaning to prepare the vacuum surfaces. The first set of simulation data looks at three different ion energy distribution inputs for nitrogen on stainless steel. These range from lower bound unrealistic estimates, to upper bound estimates, to an intermediate energy distribution that should account for a wide variation of system fluctuations and uncertainty during operation. This is used to determine and select an energy distribution for the next set of simulations exploring the differences in ion implantation concentrations and sputtering yields between hydrogen (as an analog to deuterium), nitrogen (as an analog to air), and argon (as a general comparison for a common gas used in sputtering and surface cleaning). All of the data along with a detailed write-up is already posted on my website, but I will post and elaborate on the important parameters here relevant to sputtering and surface loading effects for DC glow discharge cleaning.