Plasma under control: Advanced solutions and perspectives for plasma flux management in material treatment and nanosynthesis

Given the vast number of strategies used to control the behavior of laboratory and industrially relevant plasmas for material processing and other state-of-the-art applications, a potential user may find themselves overwhelmed with the diversity of physical configurations used to generate and control plasmas. Apparently, a need for clearly defined, physics-based classification of the presently available spectrum of plasma technologies is pressing, and the critically summary of the individual advantages, unique benefits, and challenges against key application criteria is a vital prerequisite for the further progress. To facilitate selection of the technological solutions that provide the best match to the needs of the end user, this work systematically explores plasma setups, focusing on the most significant family of the processes—control of plasma fluxes—which determine the distribution and delivery of mass and energy to the surfaces of materials being processed and synthesized. A novel classification based on the incorporation of substrates into plasma-generating circuitry is also proposed and illustrated by its application to a wide variety of plasma reactors, where the effect of substrate incorporation on the plasma fluxes is emphasized. With the key process and material parameters, such as growth and modification rates, phase transitions, crystallinity, density of lattice defects, and others being linked to plasma and energy fluxes, this review offers direction to physicists, engineers, and materials scientists engaged in the design and development of instrumentation for plasma processing and diagnostics, where the selection of the correct tools is critical for the advancement of emerging and high-performance applications.