AVS 56th International Symposium & Exhibition
    Advanced Surface Engineering Monday Sessions
       Session SE2-MoM

Paper SE2-MoM10
Optical Diagnostics of HIPIMS Discharges: Dependence of Film Growth on Control Parameters

Monday, November 9, 2009, 11:20 am, Room C4

Session: Pulsed Plasmas in Surface Engineering
Presenter: M. Lange, UTC and AFRL/RXBT
Authors: M. Lange, UTC and AFRL/RXBT
J. Jones, AFRL/RXBT
C. Muratore, UTC and AFRL/RXBT
A. Reed, AFRL/RXBT
A. Waite, UTC and AFRL/RXBT
A. Voevodin, AFRL/RXBT
Correspondent: Click to Email
High power impulse magnetron sputtering is a physical vapor deposition process distinguished by its capability to produce a high flux of ionized target material incident upon growing film surfaces. This characteristic gives the process advantages over conventional dc sputtering in that the orientation and relative density of thin films can be controlled by modulating the energy of ions constituting the film material. Unfortunately, the deposition rate in HIPIMS is often lower than in standard magnetron sputtering when processes conducted with the same time-averaged power are compared. The deposition rates for HIPIMS processes are dependent upon the power waveforms to the target, as well as the ionization energy, self sputtering rate, atomic mass, and other physical properties of the sputter target material. Correlation of target materials with thoughtfully selected properties to resultant plasma characteristics can reveal the nature of these relationships. For example, the ionization energies of hafnium and titanium are similar (6.8 eV), but their atomic masses of 178 amu and 48 amu respectively, affect the deposition rate in addition to the temporal-spatial plasma distributions, which were measured here using optical and electrostatic diagnostics. Studies of these materials provide insight on the effect of target mass on ion transport and film growth rates. Substrate bias and pulse duration have also been shown to effect the optical emissions from the plasma generated during HIPIMS operation. Correlation of these plasma characteristics to the structure and properties of elemental and compound thin films will be presented.