TiO_xdeposited by magnetron sputtering: a joint modelling and experimental study

Abstract

This paper presents a 3D multiscale simulation approach to model magnetron reactive sputter deposition of TiO x⩽2 at various O 2 inlets and its validation against experimental results. The simulation first involves the transport of sputtered material in a vacuum chamber by means of a three-dimensional direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) technique. Second, the film growth at different positions on a 3D substrate is simulated using a kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) method. When simulating the transport of species in the chamber, wall chemistry reactions are taken into account in order to get the proper content of the reactive species in the volume. Angular and energy distributions of particles are extracted from DSMC and used for film growth modelling by kMC.Along with the simulation, experimental deposition of TiO x coatings on silicon samples placed at different positions on a curved sample holder was performed. The experimental results are in agreement with the simulated ones. For a given coater, the plasma phase hysteresis behaviour, film composition and film morphology are predicted. The used methodology can be applied to any coater and any films. This paves the way to the elaboration of a virtual coater allowing a user to predict composition and morphology of films deposited in silico.

Modeling reactive magnetron sputtering: Opportunities and challenges

“…The reactive gas distribution can affect in a complex way the film properties [20] and target poisoning [21]. The influence of the reactive gas distribution can only be modeled with more advanced codes that include the gas dynamics [22]. Due to the increased complexity, one often needs to find a compromise to obtain reasonable simulation times, e.g.…”

Study of the influence of the pressure and rotational motion of 3D substrates processed by magnetron sputtering: A comparative study between Monte Carlo modelling and experiments

“…This method, which requires high computer resources, can be used to study film deposition with the help of a surface model based on sticking coefficients. Reactive sputtering simulations are also possible with a more advanced surface model and can give more detailed results than the traditional "Bergmodel" [28]. It is possible to simulate moving substrates with the DSMC simulation approach but at high computational costs since one full simulation for every sample position would be required [29].…”

Understanding the role of energetic particles during the growth of TiO2 thin films by reactive magnetron sputtering through multi-scale Monte Carlo simulations and experimental deposition

“…In a previous work [19], the role of the neutral species in the growth of TiO 2 was investigated with directsimulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) modelling combined with kMC modelling. One of the key features was the addition of a wall chemistry similar to Berg's model [20] to model reactive absorption on surfaces.…”