High power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS) : Fundamental plasma studies and material synthesis.
type: CreativeWork
description: Physical vapour deposition (PVD) technology is widely used for deposition of coatings with applications in various industries; coatings in semiconductor industry, optical coatings or hard coatings mostly used in car and aerospace industries. In 1999 novel physical vapour deposition technology entitled high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS) was suggested. The principle of HIPIMS is to utilize impulses (short pulses) of high power delivered to the target in order to generate high amount of metal ions with degree of metal ionization up to 90% and ions with energies up to 100 eV. Given that HIPIMS technology has been developed only 10 years ago, extensive amount of fundamental properties of the discharge has not yet been investigated. This thesis describes fundamental research of the plasma properties, mainly temporal and spatial evolution of ions and electrons in dependence on the external parameters such as applied power and working gas pressure. The initial period of the PhD project consisted of learning to use and interpret a data from plasma diagnostic techniques. These diagnostic techniques are Optical emission spectroscopy, Optical absorption spectroscopy, Plasma sampling mass spectrometry and Langmuir probe. The dependence of ion energy distribution function (IEDF) of metal and gas ions on applied power and working gas pressure was investigated. The results show increase in the amount and both average and maximum energy of metal and gas ions with increase in the power. Increase in the pressure, on the other hand, resulted in reduction of the amount of detected ions and lower average energies. The IEDF of both the target and gas ions was found to comprise of two Maxwellian distributions. First cold Maxwellian distribution was fitted to the main peak of the IEDF that had the lower average energy which is attributed to collisions with thermalised gas atoms and ions. The higher energy distribution is assumed to originate from a Thompson distribution of spu…
abstract: Physical vapour deposition (PVD) technology is widely used for deposition of coatings with applications in various industries; coatings in semiconductor industry, optical coatings or hard coatings mostly used in car and aerospace industries. In 1999 novel physical vapour deposition technology entitled high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS) was suggested. The principle of HIPIMS is to utilize impulses (short pulses) of high power delivered to the target in order to generate high amount of metal ions with degree of metal ionization up to 90% and ions with energies up to 100 eV. Given that HIPIMS technology has been developed only 10 years ago, extensive amount of fundamental properties of the discharge has not yet been investigated. This thesis describes fundamental research of the plasma properties, mainly temporal and spatial evolution of ions and electrons in dependence on the external parameters such as applied power and working gas pressure. The initial period of the PhD project consisted of learning to use and interpret a data from plasma diagnostic techniques. These diagnostic techniques are Optical emission spectroscopy, Optical absorption spectroscopy, Plasma sampling mass spectrometry and Langmuir probe. The dependence of ion energy distribution function (IEDF) of metal and gas ions on applied power and working gas pressure was investigated. The results show increase in the amount and both average and maximum energy of metal and gas ions with increase in the power. Increase in the pressure, on the other hand, resulted in reduction of the amount of detected ions and lower average energies. The IEDF of both the target and gas ions was found to comprise of two Maxwellian distributions. First cold Maxwellian distribution was fitted to the main peak of the IEDF that had the lower average energy which is attributed to collisions with thermalised gas atoms and ions. The higher energy distribution is assumed to originate from a Thompson distribution of spu…
author: Hecimovic, Ante.
language: en
date published: 2009
date modified: 2026-07-24T06:31:24Z
provider: Sheffield Hallam University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Sheffield Hallam University (United Kingdom).