Influence of ion-beam sputtering deposition parameters on highly photosensitive and transparent CdZnO thin films

CdZnO thin films with a nominal thickness of ~200 nm were grown on c-plane sapphire substrates by dual ion-beam sputtering deposition technique. The effect of substrate temperature (300–600 °C) and gas ambience on structural, morphological, compositional and opto-electronic properties was studied. X-ray diffraction patterns confirmed that all the films were polycrystalline in nature and were preferentially oriented along the c-axis. It was revealed that the films grown at Ar/O₂ ratio of 4:1 were structurally more ordered and the film quality was found to be the best at 500 °C. The compositional studies specify that approximately 11.8 at.% of cadmium were present in the film deposited at 300 °C in Ar–O₂ mixture. Investigations on optical properties by photoluminescence and absorption studies indicate band gap shrinkage with the increase in argon partial pressure and substrate temperature. It was found that photosensitivity of the deposited films was highly dependent on growth conditions. The photosensitivity was found to be 5000-fold higher for CdZnO film grown at 600 °C in Ar–O₂ ambience compared to the best reported result, and this was promising to realize high-performance opto-electronic devices on such CdZnO films.     

离子束溅射生长非晶Si薄膜的研究

用离子束溅射法制备了不同衬底温度的非晶硅(a-Si)薄膜,用双四探针法测量了不同温度下的电阻率,用喇曼散射及原子力显微镜表征了薄膜显微结构.结果发现随着衬底温度的升高,薄膜的电阻率逐渐增大,衬底温度为室温的a-Si薄膜质量较好且从其表面形貌可观察到少量Si晶粒的存在.     

Chemical vapour deposition of nitrogen-doped titanium dioxide thin films

Nitrogen-doped titanium dioxide is often considered as a promising nanomaterial for photocatalytic applications. Here we report the first results of a study of APCVD of N-doped TiO2 thin films prepared with the use of ammonia as a source of nitrogen and titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP) as a source of Ti and O atoms. The obtained films were analyzed with X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV-Vis spectroscopy, and ellipsometry. It was found that the film growth rate in the TTIP-NH3-Ar reaction system varied insignificantly with substrate temperature in the range of 450,..., 750 degrees C and did not exceed 4.4 nm/min. Yellow and orange layers with nitrogen content of about 7.6% were formed at the deposition temperature higher than 600 degrees C. The results of the structure analysis of the deposited films showed that addition of ammonia led to stabilization of the amorphous phase in the films. The effect of ammonia on optical and photocatalytic properties was also considered.     

Rugate filter made with composite thin films by ion-beam sputtering

Composite films of Ta-Si oxide with refractive indices that varied from 1.48 to 2.15 were realized by using rf ion-beam sputtering. All the composite films were amorphous and had a surface roughness of less than 0.3 nm. The inhomogeneity of the composite was discussed, and a rugate filter was designed and fabricated by automatic computer control.     

Preparation of highly oriented titania nanosheet thin films by electrophoretic deposition

Highly oriented titania nanosheet thin films on Pt substrate were fabricated by electrophoretic deposition. The structure and morphology of thin films formed under a variety of conditions are characterized by X-ray diffraction and field-emission scanning electron microscopy. It was found that the quality of titania nanosheet precursor suspension and electrode potential play crucial roles in the film morphology. After the colloidal suspension is optimized by settling for 2 months, the surface of the deposited film is smooth, and the layered structure is dense and well-organized. Film thickness increases with increasing electrode potential, deposition temperature and deposition time. The delicate balance among the above factors that govern the film quality and thickness should be discerned. The films can exhibit a smooth surface and well-organized layered structure under the optimal deposition conditions.     

Deposition and modification of titanium dioxide thin films by filtered arc deposition

Thin films of titanium dioxide have been deposited on glass substrates and conducting (100) silicon wafers by filtered arc deposition (FAD). The influence of the depositing Ti⁻ energy, substrate types and substrate temperature on the structure, density, mechanical and optical properties have been investigated. The results of X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that with increasing substrate bias, the film structure on silicon substrates changes from anatase to amorphous and then to rutile phase without auxiliary heating, the transition to rutile occurring at a depositing particle energy of about 100 eV. However, in the case of the glass substrate, no changes in the structure and optical properties were observed with increasing substrate bias. The optical properties over the range of 300–800 nm were measured using spectroscopic elliosometery, and found to be strongly dependent on the substrate bias, film density and substrate type. The refractive index values of the amorphous, anatase and rutile films on Si were found to be 2.56, 2.62 and 2.72 at a wavelength of 550 nm, respectively. The hardness and elastic modulus of the films were found to be strongly dependent on the film density. Measurements of the mechanical properties and stress also confirmed the structural transitions. The hardness and elastic modulus range of TiO₂ films were found to be between 10–18 and 140–225 GPa, respectively. The compressive stress was found to vary from 0.7 to 2.6 GPa over the substrate bias range studied. The composition of the film was measured to be stoichiometric and no change was observed with increasing substrate bias. The density of the film varied with change in the substrate bias, and the density ranged between 3.62 and 4.09 g/cm³.     

Stable deposition of silicon oxynitride thin films with intermediate refractive indices by reactive sputtering

The deposition stability of silicon oxynitride thin films with intermediate refractive indices was investigated as a function of argon concentration in the process gas mixture. The silicon oxynitride thin films were deposited by pulsed dc reactive magnetron sputtering in a mixture of argon, nitrogen and oxygen. The refractive indices of the silicon oxynitride thin films gradually decreased with oxygen percentage in the reactive gas mixture when high argon concentrations were used. It is proposed that many silicon atoms were sputtered from the target and reached the substrates in high argon concentrations; consequently, drastic oxidation of the thin films did not occur.     

Sputter deposition of calcium phosphate/titanium dioxide hybrid thin films

The application of either hydroxyapatite (HA) or titanium dioxide (TiO₂) as coatings onto existing bioinert materials has been explored as the key route for enhancing the surface properties of hard tissue implant devices. However, it has been proposed that composite HA/TiO₂ coatings may provide significant advantages for the application of such surfaces. This work reports on the surface properties of such composite HA/TiO₂ surfaces produced by the sputter deposition of HA onto a titanium surface and their subsequent thermal processing using either post deposition (PDA) or in situ annealing (ISA). For both the PDA and ISA coatings, a hybrid nature was only achieved in the uppermost surface region after annealing at 700 °C. It was observed that the Ca/P ratio decreased with increasing annealing temperature for the PDA coatings and that the coating annealed to 700 °C had a value of 1.82 ± 0.07, which was closest to stoichiometric HA. In comparison, the Ca/P ratio of the ISA samples increased with increasing annealing temperature. It has been shown that the resultant coatings have surface properties that are dependent on the annealing profiles employed, and that a temperature of 700 °C is required in order to create a Ca–P/TiO₂ hybrid surface.     

离子束溅射BST薄膜的制备及结构分析

本文采用离子束溅射的方法制备了不同衬底温度下的BST薄膜,用X射线、Raman、SPM等技术对晶体结构及微观形貌进行表征,研究了离子束溅射制备BST的工艺.     

反应磁控溅射制备c轴择优取向氮化铝薄膜的研究进展

AlN薄膜在力学、光学和电子学中有着广泛的应用,而反应磁控溅射技术由于沉积温度低,成本低,非常适合沉积应用于GHz通信系统中体声波(BAW)和表面声波(SAW)器件的(002)取向的AlN薄膜.本文先概述了反应溅射的两个模型,然后综述了工艺参数包括溅射气压、溅射功率、氮气浓度、衬底温度、衬底种类、靶基距、薄膜厚度、衬底偏压、退火处理等对AlN薄膜生长和性能的影响.     

Visible light-responsive titanium dioxide thin film prepared by reactive sputtering

TiO2 is a wide band-gap semiconductor (3.4 eV) and can only absorb about 5% of sun light in the ultraviolet light region, which largely limits its practical applications because of the lower utility of sun light and quantum yield. In order to move the absorption edge of TiO2 films to visible spectrum range, we have made the impurity level within a band-gap of TiO2 thin film by introduction of oxygen vacancy. Oxygen-defected TiO2 photo-catalyst have prepared by reactive sputtering with the partial pressure of Ar:O2 = 76.7:23.3 approximately 98.5:1.5 ratios. As a result, we could have the impurity level of about 2.75 eV on condition that oxygen partial pressure is 2.9%. And the photocatalytic activity was realized at 400 nm wavelength.     

Effects of bombardment on optical properties during the deposition of silicon nitride by reactive ion-beam sputtering

Thin silicon nitride (Si(1_x)N(x)) films were synthesized without substrate heating by means of reactive argon-ion sputtering of either silicon or a silicon nitride target in the 1000-1500-eV energy range at a nitrogen partial pressure of 1.3 × 10(-2) Pa and with simultaneous nitrogen ion-assisted bombardment in the 300-500-eV low energy range. The extinction coefficient and refractive index of the films were directly dependent on the N(+) ion-to-atom arrival ratio, assisted ion energy, film growth rate, and indicated a correlation with film stoichiometry and disorder. Si(3)N(4) films were obtained for N(+) ion/Si atom arrival ratios from 0.6 to 1.7 and for different Si:N atom arrival rates and had a refractive index as high as 2.04 (633 nm) and a low hydrogen content as indicated by IR spectra.     

Properties of silicon nitride thin films obtained by reactive sputtering

The dependence of the properties of Si₃N₄ films on the reactive sputtering parameters and changes of the electrical properties during long term aging in air were investigated. It was found that the properties, content and structure of films produced by the reactive sputtering of silicon in Ar-N₂ mixtures can vary widely depending on the technological parameters.     

Electron and Atomic Force Microscopy studies of photocatalytic titanium dioxide thin films deposited by DC magnetron sputtering

Titanium dioxide thin films were deposited on glass substrates and on fluorine doped tin oxides at room temperature by DC magnetron sputtering at different working gas pressures and were evaluated using photocatalytic degradation of an organic compound. The structural properties of the films were studied by electron microscopy techniques and Atomic Force Microscopy. Numerous structural defects were detected for samples deposited at 16 mTorr and it was associated with the highest photo-degradation rate. Also small band gap shift in titanium dioxide films was detected for different gas pressures. These behaviors are related with structural details derived from the synthesis conditions and the influence of structural defects on the photocatalytic activity is discussed.     

Preparation of highly oriented AlN thin films on glass substrates by helicon plasma sputtering and design of experiments

Aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films were deposited by a helicon plasma sputtering system with a radical cell. We investigated the effects of eight sputtering control factors on the crystal orientation of the films by design of experiments and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) in order to prepare highly oriented AlN thin films on silica glass substrates. Consequently, it was proved statistically that the distance between a target and a substrate, the sputtering pressure and the substrate temperature are significant control factors for the crystal orientation of the films. Especially, the distance is the most important factor of the eight control factors, which has not been reported so far. On the other hand, the effects of the cathode r.f. coil power, the radical cell power, the nitrogen concentration, the sputtering time and the cathode power are not statistically significant. Moreover, a detailed investigation of the dependence of the orientation on the three important control factors was carried out to optimize the sputtering conditions. The full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the X-ray rocking curve of the film deposited under the optimized sputtering conditions is 2.4° (σ=1.3°). This orientation is the highest in the AlN thin films deposited on amorphous substrates reported to our knowledge.     

Growth of oriented aluminium nitride films on silicon by chemical vapour deposition

Aluminium nitride films were grown on silicon substrates using the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) method. The properties of the films were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM) measurements, X-ray diffraction and Raman scattering. The resulting films were strongly textured and had a preferential orientation with the c-axis normal to the surface, the Raman spectra showed two peaks at 607 and 653 cm^–1 and two large bands at 750 and 900 cm^–1 of smaller intensity. Both the macro- and micro-Raman spectra showed the same peaks.     

Structure and properties of nitrogen-doped titanium dioxide thin films grown by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition

Using TiCl₄, O₂, and N₂O as precursors, N-doped titanium dioxide thin films with large area and continuous surface were obtained by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition. Measurements of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope and ultravoilet-Visible transmission spectra were performed. Using N₂O as N-doped source, anatase-rutile transformation is accelerated through oxygen vacancies formation, and the mean grain size of rutile crystallites decreases with the increase of N₂O flow rate. Compared to the pure TiO₂, N-doped TiO₂ films give a relative narrow optical band-gap, and their visible-light induced photocatalysis is much enhanced. Visible-light-induced hydrophilicity of the TiO₂ thin films enhances with the increase of N₂O flow rate, which might be due to the dentritic islands structure on the surface of the N-doped TiO₂ thin films.     

磁控溅射制备SiC薄膜的高温热稳定性

采用磁控溅射方法在Si基底上制备SiC薄膜,研究了SiC薄膜经不同温度和气氛条件高温退火前后结构、成份的变化.结果表明,薄膜主要以非晶为主,由Si-C键,C-C键和少量Si的氧化物杂质组成;在真空条件下经高温退火后,薄膜C-C键的含量减少,而Si-C键的含量增加,真空退火有利于SiC的形成;在800℃空气中退火后,薄膜表面生成一层致密的SiO2薄层,阻止了氧气与薄膜内部深层的接触,有效保护了内部的SiC.在空气条件下,SiC薄膜在800℃具有较好的热稳定性.     

Preparation and characterisation of titanium dioxide films for catalytic applications generated by anodic spark deposition

The advanced plasma electrochemical process of anodic spark deposition (ASD) was used to generate photoactive titanium dioxide films on titanium metal substrates. A shift to easier-to-machine substrates was demonstrated by the deposition of a titanium film with physical vapour deposition onto different materials such as glass, silicon, and stainless steel prior to ASD. Obtained films were characterised by scanning electron microscopy, surface area measurement (Brunnauer-Emmett-Teller method, BET), X-ray diffraction, electron-probe microanalysis, and glow discharge spectroscopy. Additionally, film thickness was determined by eddy current measurements. Standard ASD conditions were defined as 180 V applied voltage over a 180 s hold time, a voltage ramp of 20 V/s, a duty cycle of 0.5 and a frequency of 1500 Hz. Most prominent characteristics of the titanium films produced under these standard conditions are a film thickness of ≤80 μm, a surface area of approximately 51 m²/g (BET) and an anatase content of approximately 30% and rutile content of approximately 70%. Furthermore, the film formation process is elucidated and the dependence of film thickness on deposition time and the dependence of the anatase and rutile content on the deposited mass are shown for varying ASD conditions.