Electron drift velocity in silane in strong electric fields determined from rf breakdown curves

Abstract

We report measurements of the breakdown curves of an rf capacitive discharge in low pressure silane. The electron drift velocity was determined from the locations of the turning point and of the minimum in the breakdown curves in the range E/p = 145–1292 Vcm−1 Torr−1. We compare our results to values calculated from the published cross-sections in the range E/p = 1–2000 Vcm−1 Torr−1 and data calculated in other papers and find good agreement.