Ionization of sputtered Ti, Al, and C coupled with plasma characterization in HiPIMS

0449520 - FZÚ 2016 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Lundin, D. - Čada, Martin - Hubička, Zdeněk
Ionization of sputtered Ti, Al, and C coupled with plasma characterization in HiPIMS.
Plasma Sources Science & Technology. Roč. 24, č. 3 (2015), s. 035018. ISSN 0963-0252. E-ISSN 1361-6595
R&D Projects: GA MŠMT LH12043
EU Projects: European Commission(XE) 608800 - HIPPOCAMP
Institutional support: RVO:68378271
Keywords : IPVD * HiPIMS * HPPMS * Langmuir probe * ion meter
Subject RIV: BL - Plasma and Gas Discharge Physics
Impact factor: 2.808, year: 2015

The ionization of sputtered Ti, Al, and C has been investigated in non-reactive high-power impulse magnetron sputtering discharges using Ar as a process gas. Two complementary techniques, time-resolved Langmuir probe diagnostics and a recently developed gridless ion meter, have for the first time been used to estimate absolute values of the ionized fractions of the sputtered material. It is found that by increasing the current density from 0.5 to 2.0 A cm−2 there is a general increase of ne independently of target material and position in time with maximum plasma densities of about 1 × 1018–5 × 1018 m−3 above the target race track. Also the ionized flux fraction, measured by ion meter, is increased when increasing the current density and reaches a maximum value of 78% in the Al discharge. By using the recorded ne and Te values to calculate the ionization probability of the sputtered material, and benchmark these results using the ion meter.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0251068