Filtered cathodic arc deposition with ion-species-selective bias

A dual-cathode arc plasma source was combined with a computer-controlled bias amplifier such as to synchronize substrate bias with the pulsed production of plasma. In this way, bias can be applied in a material-selective way. The principle has been applied to the synthesis metal-doped diamond-like carbon films, where the bias was applied and adjusted when the carbon plasma was condensing, and the substrate was at ground when the metal was incorporated. In doing so, excessive sputtering by too-energetic metal ions can be avoided while the sp3/sp2 ratio can be adjusted. It is shown that the resistivity of the film can be tuned by this species-selective bias. The principle can be extended to multiple-material plasma sources and complex material

An Inverted Magnetron Operating in HiPIMS Mode

An ionized physical vapor deposition technique for thin ferromagnetic films is proposed. The technique is based on high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) with positive discharge polarity. A gapped-target was employed as the cathode of the magnetron. By applying positive HiPIMS pulses to the anode, sputtered particles inside the magnetron source were ionized and extracted through the gap. Using a discharge current with a peak of about 13 A, an ion flux in the order of 1021 m−2s−1 was obtained at a distance of 45 mm from the magnetron. In addition, deposition rates of up to 1.1 Å/s for nickel films were achieved using a 30 Hz repetition rate and 300 µs pulse width

Mo-containing tetrahedral amorphous carbon deposited by dual filtered cathodic vacuum arc with selective pulsed bias voltage

Metal-containing tetrahedral amorphous carbon films were produced by dual filtered cathodic vacuum arc plasma sources operated insequentially pulsed mode. Negatively pulsed bias was applied to the substrate when carbon plasma was generated, whereas it was absentwhen the molybdenum plasma was presented. Film thickness was measured after deposition by profilometry. Glass slides with silver padswere used as substrates for the measurement of the sheet resistance. The microstructure and composition of the films were characterizedby Raman spectroscopy and Rutherford backscattering, respectively. It was found that the electrical resistivity decreases with an increaseof the Mo content, which can be ascribed to an increase of the sp2 content and an increase of the sp2 cluster size

MeV-ion beam analysis of the interface between filtered cathodic arc-deposited a-carbon and single crystalline silicon

Amorphous carbon (a-C) films were deposited on Si(100) wafers by a filtered cathodicvacuum arc (FCVA) plasma source. A negative electrical bias was applied tothe silicon substrate in order to control the incident energy of carbon ions. Effects ofthe electrical bias on the a-C/Si interface characteristics were investigated by usingstandard Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) in the channeling modewith 2.1-MeV He2+ ions. The shape of the Si surface peaks of the RBS/channelingspectra reflects the degree of interface disorder due to atomic displacement fromthe bulk position of the Si crystal. Details of the analysis method developed aredescribed. It was found that the width of the a-C/Si interface increases linearlywith the substrate bias voltage but not the thickness of the a-C film