Microwave plasma-assisted reactive HiPIMS of InN films: Plasma environment and material characterisation

Tungsten Oxide Thin Films for Electrochromic Applications: Pulse Width‐Controlled Deposition by High‐Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering

“…The large ionized fraction of the sputtered material from metal targets in HiPIMS results in a denser plasma and thus improved properties of deposited films compared with conventional magnetron sputtering. [13][14][15][16] High-quality coatings with compact structures, smooth and homogeneous layers, and high adhesion to various substrates are the advantages of the HiPIMS technique. [17][18][19][20] Argon is often used as the unreactive gas and when mixed with varied concentrations of oxygen as the reactive gas, oxidized compounds in the form of thin films can be produced under highly ionized fluxes and enhanced energies of the bombarding ions.…”

“…[22] The oxygen index indicates the excess or deficiency of oxygen in the metal oxide structure and is a useful descriptive parameter. The stoichiometry and structure of metal oxides determine a host of physical parameters, including optical constants, [14,23,24] semiconductor properties and type of electron acceptor or donor states, [25,26] the bandgap energy, [27,28] as well as electrical and dielectric properties. [29][30][31] The obtained physical properties suit the metal oxide films to a variety of applications, including photovoltaic solar cells, [32] gas sensors, [33,34] thin-film transistors, [35][36][37] light-emitting diodes, [38,39] and chromogenic devices.…”

“…[ 12 ] The large ionized fraction of the sputtered material from metal targets in HiPIMS results in a denser plasma and thus improved properties of deposited films compared with conventional magnetron sputtering. [ 13–16 ] High‐quality coatings with compact structures, smooth and homogeneous layers, and high adhesion to various substrates are the advantages of the HiPIMS technique. [ 17–20 ]…”

Nanostructure and Optical Property Tailoring of Zinc Tin Nitride Thin Films through Phenomenological Decoupling: A Pathway to Enhanced Control

“…These developments are especially relevant for the production of compound materials, where deposition is often hampered by difficulties in sourcing and sputtering compound targets (stoichiometry, purity, conductivity) or by reactive gas-metal target interactions (target poisoning, i.e. , the formation of a compound layer on the metallic target’s surface). ,− In a previous work, we reported the combination of ECR MW plasma and HiPIMS for microwave plasma-assisted reactive HiPIMS (MAR-HiPIMS) of indium nitride (InN) . There, it was shown that it is possible to decouple the unwanted effects of target poisoning from the reactivity of nitrogen species, the generation of nitrogen ions from the magnetron plasma, and the ion production from their energies.…”

“…The rise in complexity stems from the incomplete understanding of reactions that take place between sputtered atoms and reactive gas, posing a challenge in controlling the composition and properties of the deposited film. This investigation builds on previous research on temperature-sensitive materials, using zinc (Zn) and tin (Sn) to produce tuneable zinc tin nitride (ZTN) thin films.…”