Towards control of TiO₂ thickness film in R-HiPIMS process with a coupled optical and electrical monitoring of plasma

D. Boivin (1) , Aymane Najah (1) , Ronny Jean-marie-desiree (1) , Cédric Noël (1) , Gérard Henrion (1) , Stéphane Cuynet (1) , Ludovic de Poucques (1)

1 IJL - Institut Jean Lamour

In this work, optical emission spectroscopy and electrical measurements are implemented to investigate a reactive HiPIMS TiO 2 deposition process running at duty cycles lower than 16% and at a repetition rate of 1 kHz. Investigations focus on both the effect of the discharge pulse duration and the reactive gas (O 2) content in an Ar/ O 2 gas mixture at fixed working pressures. It is shown that a competition occurs between the pulse duration and the target poisoning, the latter being favored with short pulse duration although the mean power is kept constant. An unusual hysteresis shape observed between the two sputtering modes is also discussed. From combined analyses of Ti emission line intensity, discharge current and deposited TiO 2 coating thickness, it is established that plasma diagnostics can be used effectively to control the deposition rate and to precisely manage the transition between metal and composite sputtering modes. Using these to calibrate a power feedback control loop could provide a better response compared to gas feedback control loop.

Mots clés: HiPIMS; Low pressure plasma; OES

Domaines: Physique des plasmas [physics.plasm-ph]

D. Boivin, Aymane Najah, Ronny Jean-marie-desiree, Cédric Noël, Gérard Henrion, et al.. Towards control of TiO₂ thickness film in R-HiPIMS process with a coupled optical and electrical monitoring of plasma. Surface and Coatings Technology, 2022, 433, pp.128073. ⟨10.1016/j.surfcoat.2021.128073⟩. ⟨hal-03813109⟩