Acquisition of an Ultrahigh Vacuum Sputter Deposition System for the Preparation of Nanostructured Metal Films

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Funds are provided for the acquisition of a state-of-art ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) sputter deposition system for the preparation of nanostructured metal films. The system is equipped with two magnetron sputtering sources, two ion beam sources (one for deposition and one for simultaneous ion- beam modification of the microstructure), capabilities for substrate heating and biasing, two gas supplies (argon for sputtering, and oxygen or nitrogen), residual gas analyzer, two crystal rate monitors for thickness measurement, and computer process control. The combination of the UHV sputter deposition system with the world-class analytical electron microscopy facilities at the University will provide a unique opportunity to investigate and manipulate the composition and microstructure of metal films on the nanometer scale. With this system, metal films can be fabricated that have different composition and impurity content and different microstructure. The control of microstructure, composition and impurity content is important in on-going research addressing: 1) examination of the role of grain structure and grain boundary diffusion in multilayer thin films, 2) studies of the mechanism of segregation of chromium to grain boundaries of cobalt-alloy films, the effect of impurities (such as oxygen) on this segregation, and the role that this segregation plays in the magnetic noise characteristics of cobalt-alloy thin film storage media (in collaboration with IBM for magnetic storage applications), and 3) fundamental studies of interparticulate and interphase magnetic exchange coupling in nanoheterogeneous thin films (in collaboration with Brookhaven National Laboratory and General Motors R&D for energy applications). The sputter deposition system also will be useful in the education of graduate and undergraduate students in thin film materials processing.