The Microstructure And Properties Of Titanium And Titanium Oxide Films Prepared By High-Power Pulse Magnetron Sputtering

Films deposited by high-power pulse magnetron sputtering (HPPMS) have exhibited good performance of dense structure, smooth surface and high adhesion strength etc.. And the HPPMS technique, which can effectively alleviate the "shadow effect", can be used to deposit films on substrates with complex shape. So the HPPMS technique has attracted more and more attention in recently years. At present, the researchers of HPPMS technique mainly concentrate in foreign countries, and the study is mainly concentrated on the plasma characteristics, however, the research of HPPMS technique in the domestic begins lately and the researchers are fewer. Therefore, it is very important to research the process characteristics of HPPMS and apply the HPPMS technique in the film deposition.In this paper, titanium films were deposited by HPPMS, the electrical characteristics of HPPMS, the plasma and the structure and the surface morphology of the titanium films were investigated, and the results were compared with that of the direct current magnetron sputtering(DCMS).The experimental results indicated that the target voltage was almost consistent when titanium films were deposited by HPPMS at different pulse width, the average power applied to the target, the average current in the circuit and the average ion current increased with increasing the pulse width. The plasma of the HPPMS was highly ionized,the plasma density increased with the increase of the average power applied to the target, and the plasma density of HPPMS was higher than that of the DCMS about2orders of magnitude. The deposition rate of titanium films was lower than that of the DCMS at the same target average power, however, the deposition rate would increase significantly at higher target average power due to the appearance of "thermal spike" phenomenon. The preferred orientation, grain size and surface roughness of the titanium films were significantly influenced by the ion bombardment on the growing titanium films. The grain size and the surface roughness of the titanium films deposited by HPPMS increased with increasing the pulse width.Then titanium oxide films were deposited by HPPMS at different oxygen flow rate.The influence of oxygen flow rate on the electrical characteristics of HPPMS, the plasma, the structure and the performance of the films were investigatived. The results indicated that in the film deposition process, the electrical parameters, such as the target voltage,current and the ion current, varied with the variation of the oxygen flow rate. The plasma of the HPPMS was highly ionized in the titanium oxide films deposition process, and the plasma density decreased with increasing the oxygen flow rate. Target poisoning phenomenon happened, which could not be eliminated by the ion bombardment on the target. The structure of the titanium oxide films varied with the variation of the oxygen flow rate, and the titanium oxide films of rutile structure which showed a better blood compatibility could be synthesized at oxygen glow rate higher than6sccm. With the increase of the oxygen flow rate, the sheet resistance of the titanium oxide films increased, the surface roughness decreased, and the corrosion resistance firstly increased and then decreased.