No abstract

Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) assisted DC sputter-deposition was used for the deposition of Al-doped ZnO (AZO or ZnO:Al) thin films. With increasing ICP RF power, film properties including deposition rate, crystallinity, transparency and resistivity were improved. To understand the plasma-surface interaction, several plasma diagnostics were performed. Heat fluxes to the substrate were measured by thermal probes, number densities of sputtered metallic atom species were measured by absorption spectroscopy using hollow cathode lamps (HCL) and light emitting diodes (LEDs), and neutral gas temperatures were measured by external cavity diode laser (ECDL) absorption spectroscopy. As a result, it was revealed that the high density ICP heated the substrate through a high heat flux to the substrate, resulting in a high quality film deposition without the need for intentional substrate heating.The heat flux to the substrate was predominantly contributed by the plasma charged species, not by the neutral Ar atoms which were also significantly heated in the ICP. The substrate position where the highest quality films were obtained was found to coincide with the position where the substrate heat flux took the maximum value.

No abstract

To understand the deposition mechanism during the inductively coupled plasma (ICP) assisted DC magnetron sputter-deposition of transparent conductive Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films, energy flux to a substrate was investigated. The total energy flux to a substrate (Jtotal) was measured by two types of thermal probes: one for the absolute value measurement of Jtotal at a fixed position, and the other for the spatial distribution measurement of Jtotal. The contribution due to charged species (Jch) was evaluated by the Langmuir probe measurements of plasma parameters. As a result, it was found that i) Jtotal was about 3000 W m−2 for the typical deposition condition and this value was about one order of magnitude larger than those of conventional planar magnetron sputtering, and ii) most of Jtotal was contributed by plasma charged species.

Abstract-Substrate energy flux in the inductively coupled plasma (ICP) assisted magnetron discharge has been measured by using a home-made thermal probe. The energy flux depends predominantly on the ICP power. In addition, substrate bias dependence of the substrate energy flux has been measured. As a result, it has been confirmed that the measured heat influx in an ICP is in good agreement with the theoretically calculated value within 30% error. Thus, substrate energy flux during the ICP assisted sputtering is quantitatively clarified.