Mass spectrometry diagnostic of dc magnetron reactive sputtering

Abstract

In this work we have studied the dc magnetron reactive sputtering of three metals: silver, tin and titanium in a mixture Ar–O₂ and compared the results obtained. During the discharges we have measured the deposition rate, the discharge voltage, the plasma composition and the film composition by XPS. The plasma composition is obtained by the combination of two mass spectrometry methods, GD-MS (glow discharge mass spectrometry) and RGA (residual gas analysis). We have interpreted the discharge parameters evolution in terms of plasma composition variations. Different results are observed due to the metal reactivity for the reactive species (O and O₂). Finally, we have found a correlation between the discharge composition and the binding energy of the bond M–O in the compound MO_x.