Phenomenological description of a symmetry breaking rotating instability in HPPMS discharges

Summary form only given. High Power Pulsed Magnetron Sputtering (HPPMS) is a recently developed Ionized Physical Vapor Deposition (IPVD) technique. A bias voltage is applied to the target for a few hundred microseconds with a frequency of a few hundreds of Hertz, delivering several kW cm−2of power to the target. This results in the production of an ultra dense plasma with a high ionization degree, showing some peculiar behaviors.