One-dimensional analysis of the rate of plasma-assisted sputter deposition

In this article a recently developed model [A. Palmero, H. Rudolph, and F. H. P. M. Habraken, Appl. Phys. Lett. 89, 211501 (2006)] is applied to analyze the transport of sputtered material from the cathode toward the growing film when using a plasma-assisted sputtering deposition technique. The argon pressure dependence of the deposition rate of aluminum, silicon, vanadium, chromium, germanium, tantalum, and tungsten under several different experimental conditions has been analyzed by fitting experimental results from the literature to the above-mentioned theory. Good fits are obtained. Three quantities are deduced from the fit: the temperature of the cathode and of the growing film, and the value of the effective cross section for thermalization due to elastic scattering of a sputtered particle on background gas atoms. The values derived from the fits for the growing film and cathode temperature are very similar to those experimentally determined and reported in the literature. The effective cross sections have been found to be approximately the corresponding geometrical cross section divided by the average number of collisions required for the thermalization, implying that the real and effective thermalization lengths have a similar value. Finally, the values of the throw distance appearing in the Keller-Simmons model, as well as its dependence on the deposition conditions have been understood invoking the values of the cathode and film temperature, as well as of the value of the effective cross section. The analysis shows the overall validity of this model for the transport of sputtered particles in sputter deposition.

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