A new time-of-flight instrument capable of in situ and real-time studies of plasma-treated surfaces

We introduce a new time-of-flight (TOF) instrument that has been constructed to study the dynamics of plasma–surface interactions. The instrument uses a well-defined ion beam at a grazing incidence as a surface probe. Real-space and real-time profiles of scattered particles are created from the output of a position-sensitive detector. The set-up permits the recording of energy and angular distributions of scattered ions and neutrals. Changes in energy and angular distribution as a function of time can be used to monitor real-time and in situ the interaction between plasma and surfaces. The performance of the set-up is tested and illustrative spectra for Ar+ scattering from Si (1 0 0) surfaces that were subjected to different pre-treatments are shown.