SCIENCE SPIN-OFFS

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Construction and evaluation of an ultrahigh-vacuum-compatible sputter deposition source

Peter Lackner, Joong Il Jake Choi, Ulrike Diebold, Michael Schmid
(Submitted on 17 Oct 2017)

A sputter deposition source for use in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) is described and some properties of the source are analyzed. The operating principle is based on the design developed by Mayr et al. [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 84, 094103 (2013)], where electrons emitted from a filament ionize argon gas, and the Ar

+
ions are accelerated to the target. In contrast to the original design, two grids are used to direct a large fraction of the Ar

+
ions to the target, and the source has a housing cooled by liquid nitrogen to reduce contaminations. The source has been used for deposition of zirconium, a material that is difficult to evaporate in standard UHV evaporators. At an Ar pressure of
9×
10
-6
mbar in the UHV chamber and moderate emission current, a highly reproducible deposition rate of
˜1
monolayer in 250 s was achieved at the substrate (at a distance of
˜50
mm from the target). Higher deposition rates are easily possible. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy shows a high purity of the deposited films. Depending on the grid voltages, the substrate gets mildly sputtered by Ar

+
ions; in addition, the substrate is also reached by electrons from the negatively biased sputter target.

https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.06377