Monte Carlo simulations of MgO and complex oxide protective thin layers bombarded with noble-gas ion in plasma discharge devices

The lifespan of plasma discharge devices is strongly influenced by the deterioration characteristics of MgO protective layer deposited on the dielectric covering the electrode. In order to attain both lower driving voltage and higher luminous efficiency in these devices, different complex metal oxides protective layers have been extensively studied as alternatives to MgO. However, the interaction between energetic ions and fast neutral atoms with the protective layer can produce serious damages to it and their nearby components. In this paper, we study the ion beam bombardment for several protective layers by low-energy noble gas with various ion incidence angles by using the Monte Carlo simulation. On the basis of the binary collision approximation using SRIM-2013, different parameters are discussed for instance backscattering yield, retained dose, sputtering yield, number of vacancies, and ion range of MgO, (Mg,Ca)O, (Mg,Sr)O, (Mg,Ba)O and (Mg,Ca,Sr)O. From our results, the retained dose, sputtering yield and number of vacancies of complex metal oxide protective layers are lower than that of MgO. Moreover, the backscattering yield increases by increasing the incident angles and it is highest for complex metal oxide protective layers.