Articles you may be interested inLowtemperature deposition of cubic BN:C films by unbalanced direct current magnetron sputtering of a B4C target Effects of nitrogen pressure and ion flux on the properties of direct current reactive magnetron sputtered Zr-N films J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 13, 2808 (1995); 10.1116/1.579709Preparation and characterization of epitaxial gold films deposited on mica by direct current magnetron sputteringThe effects of growth processes on the chemical bond structure, microstructure, and mechanical properties of carbon-nitride ͑CN x ͒ thin films, deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering in a pure N 2 discharge, are reported. The film deposition rate R D increases with increasing N 2 pressure P N 2 while N/C ratios remain constant. The maximum N concentration was ϳ35 at. %. R D was found to be dependent upon the film growth temperature T s . For a given P N 2 , R D decreased slightly as T s was increased from 100 to 600°C. The variations in R D with both P N 2 and T s can be explained by ion-induced desorption of cyano radicals CN x from both the target and growth surfaces during deposition. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy ͑FTIR͒ analyses showed that N atoms in films grown at T s Ͼ350°C with low nitrogen partial pressures P N 2 , ϳ2.5 mTorr, were bound to C atoms through hybridized sp 2 and sp 3 configurations. For low T s ϭ100°C and higher P N 2 , 10 mTorr, triple-bonded CwN was detected by FTIR. Two types of microstructures were observed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, depending on T s : an amorphous phase, containing crystalline clusters for films deposited at T s ϭ100°C, while a turbostraticlike or fullerenelike phase was observed for films deposited at T s Ͼ200°C CN x films deposited a higher T s and lower P N 2 were found to have higher hardness and elastic modulus.

Epitaxial (001) oriented SrTiO3 films have been deposited on LaAlO3(001) substrates by off-axis radio frequency magnetron sputtering in Ar:O2 gas mixtures at substrate temperatures ranging from 650 to 850 °C. For the deposition conditions used, stoichiometric targets yielded 20% Sr-deficient films, whereas Sr-enriched targets (Sr1.1Ti0.9O3.0) resulted in stoichiometric films. The Sr-deficient films had a mosaic structure and a larger lattice parameter in comparison to bulk SrTiO3. The stoichiometric films on the other hand had a much higher crystalline quality in the as-deposited condition. The mosaicity of the latter films was primarily limited by the crystalline quality of the LaAlO3 substrates. The lattice parameters of the stoichiometric films were also smaller than the Sr-deficient ones and closer to the bulk value. The dielectric properties of the stoichiometric films were superior to the Sr-deficient films. For films with a thickness of ∼300 nm, the typical dielectric constants as measured at ∼77 K and 1 MHz were determined to be 820 and 500, for the stoichiometric and Sr-deficient films, respectively. Also the capacitance change, as a direct current bias voltage was applied to an interdigital capacitor, was higher for the stoichiometric film, 27.3% as compared to 8.6% when applying a bias of 300 V at 77 K. We also demonstrate the effectiveness of thermal annealing in improving both crystalline quality and dielectric properties, especially for the Sr-deficient films.

The characteristics of the plasma surrounding the substrates in a planar magnetron sputtering system with a graphite target have been investigated by electrostatic probe measurements. The behaviour of the ion density ni and the electron temperature T,, determining the ion flux that can be extracted b y the substrate, with the variation of the basic system parameters, has been studied.

The ion and deposition fluxes to the substrate during sputtering of a vanadium target in neon, argon, krypton, and xenon discharges were measured as a function of the discharge power and gas pressure. The measurements of the deposition fluxes were also compared with calculations obtained using an analytical model for transport of the sputtered species through the gas discharge. The calculation takes into account both the ballistic and thermal components of the deposition flux. Overall, a good agreement between the calculated and the experimentally measured values was obtained. The results show that, at a constant discharge current, the vanadium flux at the substrate position is a strong function of both pressure and the type of inert gas used. The ion flux, on the other hand, remains relatively constant as the gas and pressure are changed. This implies that the ion-to-neutral arrival rate ratio was dominated by changes in the neutral deposition flux and it was found to increase with pressure, remain relatively constant with power at low pressures, and decrease with power at high pressures. By increasing the field strength of the outer pole in the magnetron source (unbalanced magnetron source of type II), the ion flux impinging the substrate was strongly increased for all pressures, while the vanadium deposition flux remained the same as in the ‘‘balanced’’ magnetron configuration.