A dynamic pulsed plasma reactor for chemical vapor deposition of advanced materials

A dynamic pulsed plasma reactor (DPPR) is proposed for the study of chemical vapor deposition of advanced materials. The DPPR combines plasma, shock tube, and supersonic expansion nozzle techniques for high temperature synthesis and controlled quenching of the vapor phase in a tubular reactor. The rapid quench of 10{dollar}sp7{dollar}-10{dollar}sp8{dollar} K/sec allows formation and deposition of nanometric particles with narrow size distribution on a line-of-sight substrate.; A laboratory scale DPPR apparatus was constructed and evaluated. Deposition of Ti(s) and TiN(s) from Ar-TiCl{dollar}sb4{dollar}, Ar-H{dollar}sb2{dollar}-TiCl{dollar}sb4{dollar}, and N{dollar}sb2{dollar}-H{dollar}sb2{dollar}-TiCl{dollar}sb4{dollar} reactants on Pyrex substrates supported in the supersonic nozzle were experimentally investigated with the DPPR apparatus. The resulting deposition products were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) analysis techniques.; One-dimensional theoretical gas dynamics describing wave motion and propagation of reactants in the DPPR were developed and used in identifying deposition mechanisms of homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation of Ti(s) and TiN(s) respectively. This dissertation describes design details of the DPPR, its operating characteristics, and application of theoretical wave dynamics to the experimental CVD system.