Low‐temperature reduction of SnO<sub>2</sub>by floating wire‐assisted medium‐pressure H<sub>2</sub>/Ar plasma
Thi‐Thuy‐Nga Nguyen, Minoru Sasaki, Shih‐Nan Hsiao, Takayoshi Tsutsumi, Kenji Ishikawa, Masaru Hori
Abstract
Abstract Reduction of SnO 2 to form spherical Sn particles and Sn etching are obtained by floating wire (FW)‐assisted medium‐pressure H 2 /Ar plasma. High‐density H 2 /Ar plasma (10 14 cm −3 ) with a larger treatment area at medium pressure (10 kPa) produces a two‐times higher removal rate of SnO 2 (0.111 mg/min) than that at atmospheric pressure with the same treatment area of 300 mm 2 . SnO 2 film is removed from the glass surface by a two‐step process involving (1) reduction of SnO 2 by FW‐H 2 /Ar plasma to form spherical Sn particles and (2) removal of low‐contact Sn particles by water‐based cleaning. High surface smoothness (roughness of 0.488 nm) and high optical transmittance (>92%) of treated samples indicate no damage compared to that of pristine quartz glass.