Thursday, April 18th, 2013
Jeff Ulbrandt
Department of Physics, UVM"Inert-Gas Aggregation of Nanoparticles in Magnetron Sputtering"
Sputter Deposition is one of the standard methods for the deposition of thin films. A well-known transition from compressive stress to tensile stress in sputtered thin-films occurs above a critical deposition pressure. Previous research carried out at UVM [1] showed that the cause of this transition can be explained by the sputtered vapor forming nanoparticles prior to depositing on the substrate. A system capable of directly measuring these nanoparticles has been developed utilizing a quadrupole mass spectrometer. Data from the mass spectrometer as well as X-ray scattering data on films deposited from nanoparticles is presented for two materials; Copper and Tungsten Disilicde (WSi2). [1] L Zhou et al. Phys. Rev. B 82, 075408 (2010)