High-power pulsed magnetron sputtering (HPPMS or HiPIMS) is an emerging coating technology that produces very dense plasmas and highly ionized sputtering atoms. This paper is focused on discharge properties, unbalanced features and temporal evolution of pulse current of the HPPMS discharge. A hollow cathode was used to suppress the scattering of charges. A coaxial coil surrounding the target was used to control the breakdown voltage and pulse repetition frequency by varying the coil current. A Langmuir probe and an oscilloscope were used to simultaneously measure the floating potential, pulse voltage and pulse current signals. The pulse power density in the discharge reached 10 kW/cm 2 with frequencies as high as ∼40 Hz and a pulse width about 1∼5 ms. The characteristics of the discharge evolution were analyzed using magnetron discharge dynamics.

Highly preferred InN films are deposited on sapphire (0001) substrates by electron cyclotron resonance plasma enhanced metal organic chemical vapor deposition (ECR-PEMOCVD) without using a buffer layer. The structure, surface morphological and electrical characteristics of InN are investigated by in-situ reflection high energy electron diffraction, x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and Hall effect measurement. The quality of the as-grown InN films is markedly improved at the optimized N2 flux of 100 sccm. The results show that the properties of the films are strongly dependent on N2 flux.