Three-dimensional molecular dynamics simulations of ion beam assisted deposition ~IBAD! are performed to determine the mechanisms of crystallographic texture selection during the IBAD of polycrystalline films. A face centered cubic bicrystal consisting of @111# and @110# oriented grains is grown while an ion beam bombards the growing film at normal incidence. As the film grows, the grain bounda...

Amorphous carbon films with high sp content were deposited by magnetron sputtering and intense argon ion plating. Above a compressive stress of 13 GPa a strong increase of the density of the carbon films is observed. We explain the increase of density by a stress-induced phase transition of sp configured carbon to sp configured carbon. Preferential sputtering of the sp component in the carbon f...

To improve the in situ monitoring of thin films at the Laboratoire des Matériaux Avancés, a broadband optical monitoring of the coated thin films was developed and installed in the biggest ion-beam sputtering machine in the world. Due to the configuration of the coating machine and the chamber strain under vacuum, a standard calibration procedure is impossible and a double-beam optical system i...

Discontinuous metal}insulator multilayers [Co Fe (t)/Al O (3 nm)] are prepared by ion-beam sputtering and investigated by SQUID magnetometry and AC susceptometry. For 1.0)t)1.6 nm, two coexisting subsystems of dipolar coupled nanoparticles are encountered. While a spin-glass-like freezing particulate fraction dominates at t"1.0 nm, a percolating dipolar ferromagnetic fraction becomes increasing...

A thin film process using ECR-ion beam sputtering with ultra pure (99.999999%) copper target was investigated for improving transportation properties in the film. The electric resistivity of the thin film was 40% lower than that of using a commercial-grade purity target. And the optical qualities evaluated by the transmission and reflection spectrum measurements were also indicate slower relaxa...