Optisch dünne Schichten mit kontrollierten Eigenschaften durch plasmaunterstütztes Magnetronsputtern

Optical thin films with controlled properties by plasma enhanced magnetron puttering A new reactive magnetron sputter process was investigated in which an additional plasma source was implemented to support the magnetron sputter process. The plasma source is determined by high ion current density and moderate ion energy. At the beginning of the work, extensive investigations of the interaction of the magnetron with the plasma source during the deposition process were performed. Also, the plasma parameters in the region of the substrate were determined. A stable process which can be controlled very precicely was obtained with the set‐up used here. In the following, different oxide materials such as zirconia (ZrO₂) and titania (TiO₂) were deposited and investigated. It shows that because of the precise process control, different optical and morphological properties can be directly influenced by tuning the ion‐to neutral fraction of the process.