Thin films sputter-deposited from EUROFER97 in argon and deuterium atmosphere: Material properties and deuterium retention

Sputter-deposition of ultra-thin film stacks from EUROFER97 and tungsten: characterisation and interaction with low-energy D and He ions

“…However, the peaks originating due to Fe and Cr are not clearly resolved (magnified in the figure inset). The SIMNRA simulation indicates an atomic composition of 11% Cr, 0.3% W and 88.7% Fe which agrees with the previous measurements on thicker sputter-deposited films from EUROFER97 [25] and the nominal bulk composition of 9.5% Cr, 0.33% W and ca. 90.17% Fe [2].…”

“…It is observed that the interfaces between different layers of the sample are reasonably uniform without significant intermixing of layers. No clear structure as in [25] is observed for these samples. Taking the stack layer thicknesses from TEM together with the areal densities obtained from SIMNRA simulation of 2 MeV He + RBS spectrum, the density of sputter-deposited films of EUROFER97 and W are inferred as 8.1 g cm −3 (about 3% higher than nominal EUROFER97 bulk density of 7.846 g cm −3 ), and 16.7 g cm −3 (about 13% lower than W bulk density of 19.29 g cm −3 ), respectively.…”

“…For comparison, a root mean square roughness of 7.8 nm has been reported for approx. 800 nm films sputter-deposited from EUROFER97 on a MgO substrate [25]. The smooth surface of the present films ensures the possibility of obtaining accurate information from ToF-LEIS experiments, i.e.…”

“…A 3 mm thick tungsten target and a 1 mm thick EUROFER97 target were used to synthesize sputter-deposited thin films of EUROFER97 on tungsten on silicon and carbon substrates. Due to the ferromagnetic characteristic of EUROFER97, the thickness of its target had to be minimized to 1 mm to alleviate interference with the required magnetic field of the magnetron cathode to maintain the argon plasma [25,26]. The typical distance between the sputtering target and the substrate in this system is about 15 cm and is adjustable by ±2.5 cm.…”

“…Studies of compound materials are, however, so far limited, and thorough characterisation of the thin layers is required for more reactive systems of interest [19,24]. Recently, sputter-deposited thin films of approximately 33-1160 nm thickness from EUROFER97 have been produced and characterised using different ion beam analysis (IBA) and microscopy techniques as well as mechanical tests [25] demonstrating the possibility of near-stoichiometric transfers and films with low levels of light bulk contaminants.…”