On working gas rarefaction in high power impulse magnetron sputtering

The ionization region model (IRM) is applied to explore working gas rarefaction in high power impulse magnetron sputtering discharges operated with graphite, aluminum, copper, titanium, zirconium, and tungsten targets. For all cases the working gas rarefaction is found to be significant, the degree of working gas rarefaction reaches values of up to 83 %. The various contributions to working gas rarefaction, including electron impact ionization, kick-out by the sputtered species or hot argon atoms, and diffusion, are evaluated and compared for the different target materials, and over a range of discharge current densities. The relative importance of the various processes varies between different target materials. In the case of a graphite target with argon as the working gas at 1 Pa, electron impact ionization (by both primary and secondary electrons) is the dominating contributor to working gas rarefaction, with over 90 % contribution, while the contribution of sputter wind kick-out is small < 10 %. In the case of copper and tungsten targets, the kick-out dominates, with up to ∼60 % contribution at 1 Pa. For metallic targets the kick-out is mainly due to metal atoms sputtered from the target, while for the graphite target the small kick-out contribution is mainly due to kick-out by hot argon atoms and to a smaller extent by carbon atoms. The main factors determining the relative contribution of the kick-out by the sputtered species to working gas rarefaction appear to be the sputter yield and the working gas pressure.