Two-dimensional optical emission imaging of a pulsed supersonic plasma jet

Two-dimensional monochromatic and time resolved imaging of a pulsed supersonic plasma jet is used to qualitatively determine the influence of a secondary discharge on the plasma jet chemistry in a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reactor. In this reactor, thin films of boron carbide are grown from the thermal dissociation of boron trichloride and methane. We have found in a previous study that a positive bias applied to the substrate increased significantly the growth rate. In this study, we make use of emission spectroscopy imaging to map the possible growth precursors under different bias conditions.