Dynamics of Inductively-Coupled Pulsed Chlorine Plasmas in the Presence of Continuous Substrate Bias

We report an analysis of the dynamics of a pulsed power, inductively- coupled chlorine plasma operated with continuous radio frequency (rf) bias applied to the substrate stage. A comparison of pulsed plasmas operated with and without 12.5 MHz rf bias is done through an investigation of the time dependencies of electron (n sub e) and positive ion (n sub i sup +) densities and electron temperatures (T sub e), measured with a Langmuir probe in a 10 mTorr CI sub 2 plasma. There is no significant difference in the plasma characteristics with or without bias during the ON portion of the power modulation of the source. Once the source power is turned OFF, T sub e initially decreases rapidly, and n sub e and n sub i sup + decay slowly, independent of the presence of the rf bias.