Sputter deposition of decorative boride coatings

Direct current magnetron sputtered ZrB2 thin films on 4H-SiC(0001) and Si(100)

“…This result is in contrast to Mitterer et al who found that the B/Zr ratio increased with increasing deposition temperature [9]. However, the condition that a high bias favors a Zr-rich composition is in accord with previous studies, as re-sputtering of boron during growth of ZrB2 from a compound target have been proposed by Mitterer et al [9] and Samuelsson et al [7], using DCMS and high power impulse magnetron sputtering, respectively. It is likely that a preferential re-sputtering process at moderate bias voltage of -80 V, as applied in our experiments, is eased at elevated temperatures.…”

“…While it is not possible to determine whether the oxygen originates from oxides in the target material or as oxygen containing species dissolved in pores present in the sintered material, we note that several studies in the literature have been performed, using target materials with densities less than the theoretical bulk value [9,10,17]. Their results indicate that a denser target material is likely to enable the deposition of films with a reduced level of contaminants.…”

“…The literature shows that ZrB2 films have been deposited by physical vapor deposition (PVD) [7][8][9][10], as well as chemical vapor deposition (CVD). [11,12].…”

Stoichiometric, epitaxial ZrB2 thin films with low oxygen-content deposited by magnetron sputtering from a compound target: Effects of deposition temperature and sputtering power

“…In contrast, we [14] and others [9,10,18] have shown that it is possible to grow crystalline films also at temperatures below 200 °C. Characteristic for these studies are a short target-to-substrate distance (5.5 cm or 7 cm) and high sputtering powers applied to the targets ranging from 2.8 Wcm -2 to 11.32 Wcm -2 .…”

“…ZrB2 thin films can be synthesized by sputtering from a compound or composite target [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. This is the predominant synthesis route, given the lack of a suitable boron precursor for reactive sputtering.…”