Evaluation of ion bombardment in DC magnetron sputtering DC

Abstract

Momentum of ion bombardment in sputtering deposition process, which strongly depends on internal stress of thin film, has been evaluated regarding to a new parameter P i we previously proposed for fine-tuning of mechanical, optical, electrical and magnetic properties. In this study, we demonstrate to estimate the P i defined as ( i / a ) p , where i the ion flux, a the atom flux and p the ion’s momentum, by means of Langmuir probe and multi-grid analyzer in a function of negative bias voltage applied on substrates V sub . As a result, it was found that the P i was roughly proportional to V sub except on lower voltage than 30 V. This indicates that the P i should be measured plasma-diagnostically under incident ion energy as low as plasma potential.