Jenion Ion-Beam and Surface Technique

Plasma Solutions for New Materials

Demonstration layers

Two sputtered layer systems will be presented. That are:

  • Sputtering of copper with argon at the DTM at a primary ion energy range between 300 and 800 eV: here the target atom mass (Cu with 63 amu) is bigger than the primary ion mass (argon with 40 amu), so beside the increase of the energy of the sputtered copper atoms a larger flux of  reflected neutral argon atoms influences the layer growth.
  • Sputtering of silicon with argon at the DTM at a primary ion energy range between 300 and 800 eV: here the target atom mass (Si with 23 amu) is smaller than the primary ion mass (argon with 40 amu), so that only a smaller amount of reflected neutral argon atoms occurs and the layer growth is more effected by the increased energy of the sputtered silicon atoms.


a) Amorphous layers by sputtering of copper with argon on glass

Copper layers with a thickness between 200 and 250 nm had been deposited on glass substrates at 10e-2mbar and a sputter power of 80 W.

The specific resistance was measured by a four point method. The layer thickness was measured by a profilometer, and the mass density was derived from data of a quartz microbalance.

This are first results that show, that by sputtering with increased primary ion energy both the electrical conductivity and the mass density of metal layers can be increased.










Specific resistance of copper layers in dependence from the primary ion energy

Mass density of copper layers in dependence from the primary ion energy

b) Crystalline silicon layers by Sputtering of silicon with argon on silicon

High phosphorous doped silicon targets had been used at the DTM for target 1 and target 2.  Crystalline silicon substrates (cleaned by an HF-dip direct before deposition) had been used. The substrate temperature was varied from 50 to 500 °C. The primary ion energy was  300 eV, 550 eV and 900 eV. The layer thickness was between 40 and 70 nm.

The overview photo shows the transition from pure amorphous layers (50°C, 300 eV) to   epitaxial grown layers (500°C, 900 eV). At 900 eV primary ion energy crystalline  layers growth already at a temperature of 150°C.





Overview photo of an experimant for depositing crystalline silicon layers on <100> silicon in dependence from substrate tempertaure and primary ion energy