Stephanos Konstantinidis

Influence of pulse duration on the plasma characteristics in high-power pulsed magnetron discharges

High-power pulsed magnetron discharges have drawn an increasing interest as an approach to produce highly ionized metallic vapor. In this paper we propose to study how the plasma composition and the deposition rate are influenced by the pulse duration. The plasma is studied by time-resolved optical emission and absorption spectroscopies and the deposition rate is controlled thanks to a quartz microbalance. The pulse length is varied between 2.5 and 20μs at 2 and 10mTorr in pure argon. The sputtered material is titanium. For a constant discharge power, the deposition rate increases as the pulse length decreases. With 5μs pulse, for an average power of 300W, the deposition rate is ∼70% of the deposition rate obtained in direct current magnetron sputtering at the same power. The increase of deposition rate can be related to the sputtering regime. For long pulses, self-sputtering seems to occur as demonstrated by time-resolved optical emission diagnostic of the discharge. In contrary, the metallic vapor ioniz...

Deposition of zinc oxide layers by high-power impulse magnetron sputtering

High-power impulse magnetron sputtering HiPIMS is an attractive technique to grow thin films since it allows one to highly ionize the sputtered metallic vapor. In such circumstances, ion bombardment of the growing film is intense and one can expect to drastically modify the physicochemical properties of the coating. Compared to films deposited by conventional dc bipolar pulsed magnetron sputtering DCBPMS , important alterations of the coating were already observed when using short 7 s high-power pulses for titanium oxide thin film depositions. In Ref. 3, crystallinity was found to be strongly modified. For depositions made at room temperature, a pure rutile phase was observed on grounded steel substrates. Although these results were interesting, some properties such as film surface roughness and density were not investigated. Moreover, the deposition rate was estimated by dividing the physical thickness of the film, as determined by mechanical profilometry, by the deposition duration. Hence, film density was not taken into account and results could be misleading as ion bombardment can increase compactness. In this study, we have chosen to use zinc oxide thin films. Zinc oxide is of great commercial importance since it is used as a seed layer for low-emissivity, silver-based, multilayered stacks employed in low-emissivity windows. For this particular application, it is crucial to get the smoothest surface possible in order to sharpen the interface with the silver layer. By building a sharp interface, one could expect to decrease the emittance of the stack. Fewer silver atoms would be trapped in the interface, allowing more silver atoms to effectively participate in the coating of in-plane electric conduction and infrared reflection.

Highly Ordered Hollow Oxide Nanostructures: The Kirkendall Effect at the Nanoscale

Highly ordered ultra-long oxide nanotubes are fabricated by a simple two-step strategy involving the growth of copper nanowires on nanopatterned template substrates by magnetron sputtering, followed by thermal annealing in air. The formation of such tubular nanostructures is explained according to the nanoscale Kirkendall effect. The concept of this new fabrication route is also extendable to create periodic zero-dimensional hollow nanostructures.

Plasma diagnostics for understanding the plasma–surface interaction in HiPIMS discharges: a review

The physical and chemical aspects of plasma–surface interaction in high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) discharges are overviewed. The data obtained by various plasma diagnostic methods representing the important sputtering discharge regions, namely the cathode vicinity, plasma bulk, and substrate vicinity, are reported. After a detailed introduction to the problem and description of the plasma characterization methods suitable for pulsed magnetron discharge analysis, an overview of the recent plasma diagnostics achievements in both non-reactive and reactive HiPIMS discharges is presented. Finally, the conclusions and perspectives suggesting possible directions and research strategies for increasing our knowledge in this domain are given.

Measurement of ionic and neutral densities in amplified magnetron discharges by pulsed absorption spectroscopy

Resonant absorption diagnostic has been used to estimate densities of neutral and ionic titanium, both in ground and metastable states, in a rf coil amplified magnetron sputtering process. The conventional optical source dc supply has been replaced by a high voltage pulsed power supply to allow absorption experiments onto ionic and neutral species, in a broad range of discharge conditions (500 W are applied onto the magnetron cathode and 0–500 W on the rf coil, for a 30 mTorr argon pressure). The obtained densities are used to compare the magnetron and the amplified discharges. The total ionization degree of the metallic vapor is found to increase from ∼3% in the magnetron regime to ∼24% in the amplified magnetron discharge. The Ti (a5F) neutral metastable density is found to be partially enhanced when the rf coil is power supplied.

Density and temperature in an inductively amplified magnetron discharge for titanium deposition

In order to determine the titanium neutral density, a direct current (dc) plasma discharge, amplified by a radio-frequency (rf) coil, was studied by absorption spectrometry. The argon pressure varied from 5 to 40 mTorr. The dc and rf powers varied between 100 and 1500 W and 0 and 500 W, respectively. The plasma gas temperature necessary for the density calculation was evaluated by analyzing the N2 rotational spectrum in an Ar–N2 gas mixture. When increasing the rf power a decrease of titanium neutral density was found. This decrease is related to the increased titanium ion density. When using the rf coil, the titanium degree of ionization can be up to 90%.

Transport of ionized metal atoms in high-power pulsed magnetron discharges assisted by inductively coupled plasma

Transporting metallic ions from the magnetron cathode to the substrate is essential for an efficient thin-film deposition process. This letter examines how inductively coupled plasma superimposed onto a high-power pulsed magnetron discharge can influence the mobility of titanium ions. To this effect, time-resolved optical emission and absorption spectrometry are conducted and the current at the substrate is measured. With this new hybrid technique, ions are found to reach the substrate in two successive waves. Metal ions, only present in the second wave, are found to accelerate proportionally to the power supplied to the inductively coupled plasma. All the measurements in this study are made at 10 and 30mTorr, with 10μs long pulses at the magnetron cathode.

On the phase formation of sputtered hafnium oxide and oxynitride films

Hafnium oxynitride films are deposited from a Hf target employing direct current magnetron sputtering in an Ar-O(2)-N(2) atmosphere. It is shown that the presence of N(2) allows for the stabilizati ...

Electron Beam Nanosculpting of Kirkendall Oxide Nanochannels

The nanomanipulation of metal nanoparticles inside oxide nanotubes, synthesized by means of the Kirkendall effect, is demonstrated. In this strategy, a focused electron beam, extracted from a transmission electron microscope source, is used to site-selectively heat the oxide material in order to generate and steer a metal ion diffusion flux inside the nanochannels. The metal ion flux generated inside the tube is a consequence of the reduction of the oxide phase occurring upon exposure to the e-beam. We further show that the directional migration of the metal ions inside the nanotubes can be achieved by locally tuning the chemistry and the morphology of the channel at the nanoscale. This allows sculpting organized metal nanoparticles inside the nanotubes with various sizes, shapes, and periodicities. This nanomanipulation technique is very promising since it enables creating unique nanostructures that, at present, cannot be produced by an alternative classical synthesis route.

Low temperature synthesis of α-Al2O3 films by high-power plasma-assisted chemical vapour deposition

In this study, we deposit Al2O3 films using plasma-assisted chemical vapour deposition (PACVD) in an Ar–H2–O2–AlCl3 atmosphere. A novel generator delivering approximately 4 times larger power densities than those conventionally employed in PACVD enabling efficient AlCl3 dissociation in the gas phase as well as a more intense energetic bombardment of the growing film is utilized. We demonstrate that these deposition conditions allow for the growth of dense α-Al2O3 films with negligible Cl incorporation and elastic properties similar to those of the bulk α-Al2O3 at a temperature of 560 ± 10 °C.