Systematic investigation of the ion beam sputter deposition process of TiO2

拟议项目的总体目标是产生关于离子束溅射沉积过程的理解的新知识，这将允许优化薄膜的薄膜特性，以适应不同的应用。因此，它的目的是为不断增长的需求，薄膜定制的属性。该计划将大大扩展的基本和成功执行的调查，从项目前。上一个项目是对单原子材料的离子束溅射沉积过程进行全面和系统的研究（即Ag和Ge），即研究工艺参数之间的系统关系（初级离子能量、离子种类、离子入射角、极性发射角），成膜颗粒的性质（溅射靶粒子和散射初级粒子的角和能量分布），和膜的性质。在所提出的项目中，这些系统的研究应扩展到多原子系统的溅射过程，因为预期在单原子靶的溅射方面存在系统差异，或者例如，靶成分的优先溅射和多于一种溅射物质的产生，即原子、离子和分子的产生。不同的粒子种类暂时具有不同的角度和能量分布，这对工艺参数具有不同的依赖性。到目前为止，还没有发表任何解决这些问题的结果。示例性地，选择TiO 2作为所考虑的材料。TiO2由于某些材料性质，即其光活性或其光学性质而具有技术意义。因此，TiO_2被用作光催化剂，用于太阳能电池或光学多层膜中。第一种方法是从金属Ti靶的反应沉积。在此，金属成分被溅射，而氧气被提供作为工艺气体。第二种方法是直接溅射陶瓷TiO2靶。在这种情况下，所有的膜成分都从靶溅射。因此，这两种方法的不同之处在于能量进入生长层，这将导致不同的薄膜特性。以下任务应在拟议的项目中完成：成膜颗粒和薄膜的特性的实验测量，以及它们在工艺参数系统变化下的关系。这些实验应针对直接和反应沉积工艺进行。此外，溅射过程的模拟将被执行，这将有助于验证模拟代码，因此，其在具体情况下的可用性。

The overall goal of the proposed project is the generation of new knowledge concerning the understanding of the ion beam sputter deposition process, which shall allow the optimization of film properties of thin films for different applications. Thus, it is intended to contribute to the growing demand for thin films with tailored properties.The intended project shall considerably extend the fundamental and successfully performed investigations from befor project. The previous project addressed the comprehensive and systematic investigations of the ion beam sputter deposition process of monoatomic materials (namely Ag and Ge), i.e. the study of the systematic relations between the process parameters (primary ion energy, ion species, ion incidence angle, polar emission angle), the properties of the film-forming particles (angular and energy distributions of sputtered target particles and scattered primary particles), and the film properties.In the proposed project these systematic investigations shall be extended to the sputtering process of multiatomic systems, because systematic differences in respect to sputtering of a monoatomic target are expected, or instance, preferential sputtering of the target constituents and the generation of more than one sputtered species, namely, the generation of atoms, ions and molecules. The different particle species tentatively possess different angular and energy distributions, which have different dependencies on the process parameters. So far, there have been published no results which have addressed these questions. Exemplarily, TiO2 is chosen as the considered material. TiO2 is of technological interest because of certain material properties, i.e. its photo activity or its optical properties. Because of that, TiO2 is used as photo catalyst, in solar cells or in optical multilayer coatings.There are two technological approaches for the deposition of TiO2 by sputtering. The first approach is the reactive deposition from a metallic Ti target. Here the metallic component is sputtered whereas the oxygen is provided as a process gas. The second approach is the direct sputtering of ceramic TiO2 target. In this case all film constituents are sputtered from the target. Thus, the two approaches differ from the energy entry into the growing layer, which should result in different film properties. The following tasks shall be done within the proposed project: The experimental measurement of the properties of the film forming particles and of the films, and their relations under systematic variation of the process parameters. These experiments shall be performed for both the direct and the reactive deposition process. In addition, simulations of the sputter process will be performed, which shall help to validate the simulation code and, hence, its usability in the concrete case.