Dear Purvi Kikani,

oxygen in plasma might lead to the formation of atomic oxygen, which is a well known etcher of carbon materials (such as polymer backbones), so this might result in the significant morphological changes you mentioned. At low pressure, this phenomenon is particularly relevant since the etching process can be enhanced from the ion bombardment.

Giulia Laghi Thank you so much madam for clear explanation. Is there any role of heat generated near the substrate surface due to incident flux of ions, electrons and their released recombination energy ? which one would be dominating among physical etching / chemical etching or localized heating ?

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