I have a planar sputtering magnetron, one can tell by looking on the target where the race track is. I want to use similar method for studying where the electron strikes on the cathode. Can anyone suggest a material or working gas which changes visible parameter when struck by electron or negative ions?
You can buy two NdFeB magnets, one in the shape of a ring, the other a disk that fits inside the ring. Affix this behind your cathode and you can create another racetrack. The difficult part is putting the two magnets together without hurting yourself.
Dear Samir,
you may introduce Langmuir-probes into your sputter plasma to measure the properties of the plasma. We did that in the past especially for magnetron sputtering processes. For an introduction, check the wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langmuir_probe), or carefully read the lecture notes under http://www.seas.ucla.edu/~ffchen/Publs/Chen210R.pdf!
What you will gain from those type of electrical measurements are the ion and electron saturation currents, the (local) potentials in your glow discharge (and therefore a Langmuir-probe mounted to a flexible/variable connect may be very useful in your case), and you may calculate the electron temperature in the plasma.
In your specific case, I would recommend to use the Langmuir probes in the vicinity of the cathode, to see local variations of electron and ion currents.
Hope these infos help, Dirk
In case of magnetron sputtering, I suggest argon as a workin gas - it is the best-known type of working gas. In the case of the electrode - copper. There are many data in the literature relating to these elements....
I'm not sure if I'm getting your question completely.
But if you are free to chose a material for your cathode and just want to see visibly, you could try the following. Take a copper plate, oxidize it slightly by shortly annealing and then use it in your sputter chamber. If you are losing material on your cathode, by impact of electrons you should see the pure copper there afterward.
To be sure this works, I would have to know about your exact setup.
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