plasma cleaning

"Plasma cleaning" is to irradiate a specimen with plasma ions to remove contaminants (polymerized substances of hydrocarbons) on the specimen. In actual plasma cleaning, the specimen is placed between the two electrodes, and then a voltage is applied between the electrodes under a low vacuum so that residual gasses transform to the plasma state. The contaminants are removed by the strong reaction of the plasma ions. In the plasma state, atoms or molecules become ions and radicals due to strong collision with each other, which are at high energy states and are very reactive with other molecules.

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