Understanding the discharge voltage behavior during reactive sputtering of oxides

The discharge voltage was measured for 15 different metallic target materials at constant current before and after plasma oxidation in order to understand its behavior during reactive magnetron sputtering. Plasma oxidation of the target surface was achieved by sputtering the target in pure oxygen. The discharge voltage measured in pure argon is characteristic for each kind of metallic target and is related to the ion induced secondary electron emission (ISEE) coefficient of the target material. Based on this relation a value for the ISEE coefficient of the oxidized target surface can be calculated. Two distinct groups can be discerned: for one group the ISEE coefficient of the oxidized target surface is larger than the ISEE coefficient of the metal, while the opposite behavior is noticed for the second group. This difference seems to find its origin in the reduction behavior of the oxides under ion bombardment, since the ISEE coefficient of the oxide can be related to the simulated degree of reduction of the oxide. It is shown that the ISEE coefficient of the reduced oxides decreases with increasing oxygen content in the target. This is confirmed experimentally by sputtering in pure argon reduced titanium oxide targets with a known composition. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.