Microstructure and Magnetron Sputtering Properties of W/Re Alloy Targets Fabricated by Vacuum Sintering

To develop high-quality refractory metal targets, pure W and W/Re alloys (with Re contents of 1, 5 and 10 mass%) were fabricated via mechanical mixing, press forming and vacuum sintering. Properties such as relative density, grain size and orientation, and magnetron sputtering characteristics were investigated in the W/Re alloys. With increasing Re content, both the relative density and purity of the W-Re alloys increased, while the grain size decreased. The sizes of the grains in the W/10 mass% Re alloy target were mainly between 10 and 40 μm. The results of electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) indicated that the grains in the W/Re alloys were randomly distributed and did not have a preferred orientation. The percentage of small-angle grain boundaries (< 10°) was greater than 85% in the W/10 mass% Re alloy. The grains in W/Re alloy thin films became gradually refined with increasing deposition pressure during magnetron sputtering. Additionally, the surface roughness of the thin films gradually decreased and the thickness of the thin films gradually increased with increasing deposition pressure. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the thin films exhibited (110), (200) and (211) diffraction peaks at 40.5°, 58.6° and 73.5°, respectively. With increasing deposition pressure, the intensity of the (110) diffraction peak gradually decreased, while the intensity of the (200) diffraction peak gradually increased.