Atomic mixing and preferential sputtering impose a depth resolution limit on the use of sputter sectioning to measure the composition of metal-semiconductor interfaces. Experimental evidence obtained with the Pt-Si system is used to .demonstrate ion-induced atomic mixing and then its effect on sputter etching and depth profiling. Starting with discrete layer structures, a relatively low ion dos...

The study is aimed at the assessment of surface modification of bioresorbable polymeric material (polycaprolactone (PLC) by radio-frequency magnetron discharge plasma with hydroxyapatite target sputtering. Plasma surface modification increases its roughness, the surface free energy, hydrophilicity and enhances the growth of PCL crystallites. An increase in plasma exposure times (30, 60, 150 s) ...

VOx thin films were deposited on Corning glass, fused silica and Ti foils by means of rf reactive sputtering from a metallic vanadium target. Argon-oxygen gas mixtures of different compositions controlled by the flow rates were used for sputtering. Influence of the oxygen partial pressure in the sputtering chamber on the structural and optical properties of thin films has been investigated. Str...

Atmospheric loss induced by an incident plasma, often called atmospheric sputtering, can significantly alter the volatile inventories of solar system bodies. Based on the present atmospheric sputtering rate, the net loss of nitrogen from Titan in the last 4 Gyr was small, consistent with Titan retaining a component of its primordial atmosphere. However, atmospheric sputtering by the magnetosphe...

Energetic ions from the solar wind, local pick-up ions or magnetospheric plasma ions impact the atmospheres and surfaces of a number of solar system bodies. These energetic incident ions deposit energy in the gas or solid. This can lead to the ejection of atoms and molecules, a process referred to as sputtering. In this paper we first describe the physics and chemistry of atmospheric and surfac...

Microelectronics technological processes are most complicated and consist of many un-predicted factors on the final device parameters. Thin films deposition methods based on magnetron plasma sputtering are influenced by lots of independent active factors. These deposition methods bring along uncertainty in the precise design process of electronic components. Thus, intelligent modeling process i...

We report x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis of native Ti target surface chemistry during magnetron sputtering in Ar/N2 atmosphere. To avoid air exposure, the target is capped immediately after sputtering with a few-nm-thick Al overlayers, hence, information about the chemical state of target elements as a function of N2 partial pressure pN2 is preserved. Contrary to previous repor...

Silicon nitride thin films were prepared by reactive sputtering from different sputtering targets and using a range of Ar/N2 sputtering gas mixtures. The hardness and the Young’s modulus of the samples were determined by nanoindentation measurements. Depending on the preparation parameters, the obtained values were in the ranges 8–23 and 100–210 GPa, respectively. Additionally, Fourier-transfor...

The inner surface of the ring vacuum chambers of the US Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) will be coated with ~100 nm of Titanium Nitride (TiN). This is to minimize the secondary electron yield (SEY) from the chamber wall, and thus avoid the so-called e-p instability caused by electron multipacting as observed in a few high-intensity proton storage rings. Both DC sputtering and DCmagnetron sputte...

1 Institute for Low Temperature Physics and Engineering of the NASU, Lenin Ave. 47, Kharkov 61103, Ukraine 2 Institute of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, TU Munich, Lichtenbergstr. 4, Garching 85747, Germany 3 Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Plank-Gesellschaft, Department of Molecular Physics, Berlin14195, Germany ________________________________________________________________________ Abstrac...