Regensburg 2007 – scientific programme

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DS: Fachverband Dünne Schichten

DS 15: Poster Session

DS 15.57: Poster

Tuesday, March 27, 2007, 15:00–17:00, Poster B

Structure modification of sputtered oxide films upon oxygen ion bombardment — •Christoph Angerhausen, Dominik Köhl, Daniel Severin, and Matthias Wuttig — 1. Physikalisches Institut IA, RWTH Aachen, 52056 Aachen, Germany

Tailoring the structural properties of transition metal oxides is often fundamental to produce films with specific, desired functionalities. Frequently for such applications sputtering is used as the deposition technique of choice. Upon reactive sputtering of many transition metal oxides the generation of negatively charged oxygen ions at the target surface is observed. These ions are accelerated in the cathode dark space and bombard the growing film. J. Ngaruiya [APL] has shown that the resulting bombardment of the growing film leads to modifications in various film properties, in particular in the resulting film structure. While the flux of negative oxygen ions is related to the oxygen partial pressure it can not be controlled independently. To circumvent this shortcoming, an ion gun was implemented into a sputter chamber. This enabled a controlled bombardment by oxygen ions with well defined energy and current density.

In this presentation the effect of the impact of oxygen ion bombardment on the growing film is demonstrated. The flux of negative oxygen ions from the target surface to the substrate has been shielded. Hence the film is only bombarded by oxygen ions from the separate ion gun. Examinations of the structure allow the definition of thresholds in ion energy and current density above which a significant modification of the film structure is observed.