Duty cycle control in reactive high-power impulse magnetron sputtering of hafnium and niobium

Abstract Instabilities in reactive sputtering have technological consequences and have been attributed to the formation of a compound layer on the target surface (‘poisoning’). Here we demonstrate how the duty cycle of high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) can be used to control the surface conditions of Hf and Nb targets. Variations in the time resolved target current characteristics as a function of duty cycle were attributed to gas rarefaction and to the degree of poisoning of the target surface. As the operation transitions from Ar driven sputtering to metal driven sputtering, the secondary electron emission changes and reduces the target current. The target surface transitions smoothly from a poisoned state at low duty cycles to a quasi-metallic state at high duty cycles. Appropriate selection of duty cycle increases the deposition rate, eliminates the need for active regulation of oxygen flow and enables stable reactive deposition of stoichiometric metal oxide films. A model is presented for the reactive HIPIMS process in which the target operates in a partially poisoned mode with different degrees of oxide layer distribution on its surface that depends on the duty cycle. Finally, we show that by tuning the pulse characteristics, the refractive indices of the metal oxides can be controlled without increasing the absorption coefficients, a result important for the fabrication of optical multilayer stacks.