No abstract

Argon ion bombardment effects on growing amorphous SiO 2 films during reactive sputtering deposition processes were examined based on molecular dynamics ͑MD͒ and Monte Carlo ͑MC͒ simulation techniques. The system we have considered here is a film that is subject to energetic Ar bombardment while it is formed by surface reactions of Si and O atoms separately supplied at low kinetic energies. It has been found that ͑1͒ Ar injections preferentially sputter O atoms from the surface over Si and ͑2͒ also have a compressing effect on the growing film during the deposition process. In other words, our MD/MC simulations have demonstrated at the atomic level that, with higher energy Ar injections, an amorphous SiO 2 film grown in a reactive sputtering deposition process is denser and more Si rich.

Effects of the incident angle of deposition species on film properties during reactive sputtering deposition processes for amorphous SiO2 are examined with the use of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations combined with Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. From the simulation results, it has been confirmed that some properties of the deposited film strongly depend on the incident angle of Si atoms sputtered from the target. For example, the film density is shown to become lower at larger Si incident angles. The stoichiometry of the film expressed by the ratio of the number of O atoms to that of Si atoms contained in the film has been also shown to increase as the Si incident angle increases. In other words, as the angle of incidence for Si atoms becomes large, the film becomes more oxygen rich and porous. Possible physical mechanisms causing these effects are also discussed from the viewpoint of motion of incident Si atoms interacting with the surface atoms.