Mass Spectrometric Investigations of Nano‐Size Cluster Ions Produced by High Pressure Magnetron Sputtering

Abstract

A comparison of quadrupole mass spectrometric (QMS) and transmission electron microscopic (TEM) characterization of silver nano-cluster deposition produced by a nano-cluster source consisting of a planar DC magnetron sputter source in a high pressure gas aggregation chamber is presented and discussed. Cluster sizes and size distributions detected by the two different techniques are compared and the differences are discussed. The effects of He to Ar ratio, gas flow and magnetron power on the cluster size distribution are evaluated. The influence of the target erosion and aging effects are mentioned, too.

Operational limit of a planar DC magnetron cluster source due to target erosion

“…This corresponds to a groove depth of 3.8 mm. Stop of the cluster formation long before the erosion groove reaches the target thickness was also observed for other experimental conditions and materials [2,5].…”

Comparison of magnetron sputtering and gas aggregation nanoparticle source used for fabrication of silver nanoparticle films

“…In contrast, the utilization of GAS for deposition of Ag nanoparticle films makes it possible to vary their amount independently of their size. As proven by different research groups the size of the nanoparticles produced by GAS system may be in some range adjusted by the variation of operational parameters such as working gas, length of the aggregation chamber, pressure and flow of working gas or magnetron current [24,28,35].…”

“…This concept of gas aggregation sources was modified by Haberland et al [13], who substituted evaporation cell by a magnetron, which enabled the production of nanoparticles from materials with high melting point (details related to the GAS may be found in review articles [14][15][16]). These GAS systems were already used for the fabrication of a wide variety of metallic nanoparticles such as for instance Cu, Ti, Ag, and Al [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28].…”

Influence of source parameters on the growth of metal nanoparticles by sputter-gas-aggregation

“…Thus, to enhance particle production and to steer its size distribution toward the desired range, it is valuable to have both empirical and conceptual insights into the effect of these parameters on the cluster formation process. Many papers have examined the effect of operating conditions on the size, morphology, and kinetic energy of nanoclusters (examples include Hihara and Sumiyama 1998; Morel et al 2003;Pratontep et al 2005;Das et al 2009;Quesnel et al 2010;Ayesh et al 2010;Gracia-Pinilla et al 2010;Nielsen et al 2010;Ganeva et al 2012;Luo et al 2012;Ayesh et al 2013;Bray et al 2014;Dutka et al 2015;Fischer et al 2015;Kusior et al 2016;Zhao et al 2016;Rudd et al 2017), but each typically looked only at a subset of source parameters. Consequently, a comprehensive multidimensional characterization has not yet been presented.…”