Eur. Phys. J. B 46, 335-342 (2005)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2005-00258-4

Heating of condensation surface during magnetron sputtering

¹ Institute for Materials Science Problems of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Krzhizhanovsky str., 3, Kiev-03142, Ukraine
² Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Gatchina, 188300, Russia
³ Center for Advanced Plasma Surface Technology, Sungkyunkwan University 300 Chun-Chun-Dong Jangan-gu Suwon, 440-746 Korea

Corresponding author: ^a shagin@skku.edu

Received: 7 December 2004
Revised: 31 March 2005
Published online: 18 August 2005

Abstract

Chromium films deposited by magnetron sputtering on non-heated substrates from non-thermalized atoms crystallize in regular bcc Cr phase, with non-uniform microstructure and lattice constant along the thickness. These non-uniformities decrease with elevation of the substrate temperature and vanish at a certain value. However films deposited on non-heated substrates from thermalized atoms crystallize in a low-temperature Cr phase and have almost uniform microstructure. We have developed a model explaining this effect, which is based on the supposition of the formation of a “hot” layer on the growth surface during deposition, whose temperature depends on the flux of energy delivered to the condensation surface and can be noticeably higher than the substrate temperature. Detailed investigation of the structure of Cr films deposited at various temperatures and energy fluxes delivered to the growth surface, correlate well with the above model.