THIN FILM DEPOSITION USING PVD

One important recent trend in deposition technology is the continuous expansion of available processes towards higher ion assistance with the subsequent beneficial effects to film properties. Nowadays, a multitude of processes, including vacuum arc deposition and plasma immersion ion implantation, are available.This work presents how the control of energetic ion bombardment leads to improved adhesion, reduced substrate temperatures, control of intrinsic stress within the films as well as adjustment of surface texture, phase formation and nanotopography.While a large amount of literature is available describing the different processes and methods, with a different set of literature detailing the film properties and applications, a short and concise overview of processes and feasible influences on film properties, including recent advances in nanotechnology, can seldom be found. Current overviews could be consulted on more specific details of selected aspects, e.g., for the microstructural evolution during film growth detailing the influence of temperature, reactive species and ion irradiation, for ionized physical vapor deposition or stress generation and relief processes. In this report, an attempt is made to give an introduction into deposition technologies involving energetic ions with kinetic energies in the range from 0.1 to 10 keV. Non-equilibrium processes are expected to dominate in the ion-surface interactions encountered during these energetic deposition processes, including ion mixing, surface sputtering and the formation of metastable phases, effects which all can be employed in modern functional coatings. The understanding of the phenomenology and mechanisms is necessary to develop new structures and applications in a fast and efficient way, in contrast to the empirical exploration of a vast parameter space.All the thin film properties presented in this manuscript depend on the provision of additional energy, preferably kinetic energy or potential energy from multiple charged cluster ions. However, additional factors such as chemical affinity, cohesive energy, orientation dependent surface energy and potential barriers encountered in volume, grain boundary or surface diffusion processes, always play a very important role. Hence, the mobility, respective ion damage, has to be seen in this light. As long as no single crystalline films or amorphous films are obtained, the texture, i.e., the distribution of crystallographic orientations of a polycrystalline film, can be influenced by the ion bombardment during deposition, as well as the intrinsic mechanical stress.