Formation of pure anatase TiO₂ using the reactive pulsed dc magnetron sputtering method for controlling the target poisoning state

Abstract

The use of pulsed dc‐sputtering sources for reactive magnetron sputtering with oxygen offers a possibility to suppress the negative effects of target poisoning (such as arcing). This results in a wide process range for the selection of a desired operating point. The control of target poisoning plays a major role in maintaining constant coating properties and affects the stoichiometry of the reactive coating, as well as the coating rate and the economic impact of the coating process. In a hysteresis, the target poisoning during the reactive sputtering of titanium under oxygen addition proceeds nonlinearly. Without the use of a suitable target poisoning control technique, the sputtering process can abruptly change to an unstable state. As a result, variations of stoichiometry can occur during the deposition process. A proven method for maintaining a stable reactive sputtering process is the control of oxygen flow with the input variable target voltage. By determining the typical oxygen hysteresis at constant target power and constant argon flow, an operating point for the control loop is derived. The desired target voltage then serves as the input variable for the control loop of the target poisoning. The controlling technique for target poisoning is a basic requirement for the production of the photolytic active anatase phase of titanium dioxide (TiO2) using reactive magnetron sputtering. The photocatalytic equipment of surfaces with a titanium dioxide coating in the anatase phase can be realized with the reactive pulsed dc magnetron sputter ion plating process (DC‐MSIP). The pulsed DC‐MSIP process facilitates coating a variety of surfaces at temperatures below 200°C in an environmentally friendly manner.

Photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue by anatase TiO 2 coating

“…Environmentally friendly production of the desired coating is possible with the use of modern coating technologies such as magnetron sputtering (MSIP-PVD), a commercial thin film deposition technique related to physical vapor deposition (PVD). Since a substrate temperature below 250 °C is preferred for the deposition of the anatase phase, and MSIP-PVD allows these temperatures to be maintained, this eliminates the need for post-deposition annealing [2,14,15]. When UV light is irradiated onto a TiO 2 photocatalytic surface and the photon energy is at least equal to or greater than its bandgap energy, an electron-hole pair -consisting of a free electron and a free electron hole -will simultaneously be formed.…”

A Coaxial Nozzle Attachment Improving the Homogeneity of the Gas Flow Sputtering

“…Sputtering is one of the most significant deposition methods utilized for depositing thin films across various applications (industrial coatings on glass, wear-resistant coatings, photovoltaics, electronics and others) [1][2][3]. Among the sputtering techniques, magnetron sputtering is widely employed in the industry but is prone to target poisoning due to hysteresis behavior during reactive sputtering, which also impacts the deposition rate [4][5][6]. Gas flow sputtering (GFS), based on hollow cathode discharge, demonstrates several key advantages over conventional low-pressure sputtering techniques.…”