Effects of cathode voltage pulse width in high power impulse magnetron sputtering on the deposited chromium thin films

Abstract

Environmentally-safe high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) technology was utilized to deposit chromium films. This research focused on the influences of the HiPIMS pulse widths on the microstructure of films deposited at different deposition pressures and substrate bias voltages. Under the conditions of the same average HiPIMS power and duty cycle, the deposition rate of the Cr thin film at working pressure 0.8 Pa is slightly higher than at 1.2 Pa. Also, the difference between deposition rates under two pressures decreases with the discharge pulse width. The deposition rate of the short pulse width 60 μs is lowest, but those of 200 and 360 μs are approximately the same. With no or small direct current substrate biasing, the microstructure of films coated at short pulse width is similar to the typical magnetron sputtering deposited films. Elongating the pulse width enhances the ion flux toward the substrate and changes the film structure from individual prism-like columns into tangled 3-point/4-point star columns. Substantial synchronized substrate biasing and longer pulse width changes the preferred orientation of Cr films from Cr (110) to Cr (200) and Cr (211). The films deposited at longer pulse width exhibit a higher hardness due to the reducing of intercolumn voids.