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Elimination of Arcing in Reactive Sputtering of Al 2 O 3 Thin Films Prepared by DC Pulse Single Magnetron
Author(s) -
Meissner Michal,
Tolg Tomas,
Baroch Pavel,
Musil Jindrich
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
plasma processes and polymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.644
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1612-8869
pISSN - 1612-8850
DOI - 10.1002/ppap.201000208
Subject(s) - high power impulse magnetron sputtering , electric arc , materials science , sputtering , pulse (music) , thin film , sputter deposition , cavity magnetron , power density , pulse duration , pulsed dc , analytical chemistry (journal) , pulsed power , optoelectronics , optics , power (physics) , voltage , electrical engineering , laser , chemistry , nanotechnology , electrode , physics , engineering , quantum mechanics , chromatography
The article reports on the elimination of arcing in the DC pulse reactive sputtering of Al 2 O 3 thin films using a single unbalanced magnetron operating at relatively high target power density W ta ranging from ∼10 to ∼50 W/cm 2 ; W ta is the target power density averaged over the pulse length. Correlations between pulse length τ , pulse‐off time t off , repetition frequency f r and arcing at the target surface were investigated in detail. Undesirable damage of sputtered alumina film due to arcing is demonstrated. It is shown that the length of pulse‐off time t off is of key importance for elimination of arcing in pulse reactive sputtering of electrically insulating compounds using a single magnetron.