Study of discharge characteristics in pure argon and oxygen during DC sputtering of YBaCuO films

This paper describes a study of the glow discharge characteristics during dc sputtering of YBaCuO films using pure argon and oxygen as discharge gases. It discusses the mechanisms that affect the cathode voltage and floating potential of the substrate. High gas pressure oxygen sputtering with substrate heating (about 700°C) was found to aid faster stabilization of the target voltage. Films formed by sputtering in oxygen exhibited better stoichiometry than those by sputtering in argon under the same conditions of substrate temperature