Microplasmas can be used for a wide range of technological applications and
to improve our understanding of fundamental physics. Scanning electron
microscopy, on the other hand, provides insights into the sample morphology and
chemistry of materials from the mm-down to the nm-scale. Combining both would
provide direct insight into plasma-sample interactions in real-time and at high
spatial resolution. Up till now, very few attempts in this direction have been
made, and significant challenges remain. This work presents a stable direct
current glow discharge microplasma setup built inside a scanning electron
microscope. The experimental setup is capable of real-time in-situ imaging of
the sample evolution during plasma operation and it demonstrates localized
sputtering and sample oxidation. Further, the experimental parameters such as
varying gas mixtures, electrode polarity, and field strength are explored and
experimental V-I curves under various conditions are provided. These
results demonstrate the capabilities of this setup in potential investigations
of plasma physics, plasma-surface interactions, and materials science and its
practical applications. The presented setup shows the potential to have several
technological applications, e.g., to locally modify the sample surface (e.g.,
local oxidation and ion implantation for nanotechnology applications) on the
μm-scale.Comment: LG, DC, and RDM contributed equally to this work. The videos
mentioned in the manuscript can be found in the Zenodo repository linked in
the pape