Thomson Scattering Diagnostics of an ECR Processing Plasma

Information of electron behaviour in processing plasmas was obtained for the first time by the Thomson scattering measurements of electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasmas after overcoming various difficulties of the experiment. At relatively high microwave power of 500 W and high argon gas pressure of 2 mTorr, the measurements yielded electron temperature and density to be 9±3 eV and (9±2)×1017 m-3, respectively. Ways of improving detection limit and/or accuracy are discussed.