High-Rate Deposition of Stoichiometric Compounds by Reactive Magnetron Sputtering at Oblique Angles

Abstract

Target poisoning in reactive magnetron sputtering deposition of thin films is an undesired phenomenon, well known for causing a drastic fall of the process efficiency. We demonstrate that when this technique is operated at oblique angles, films with composition raging from pure metallic to stoichiometric compound can be grown in non-poisoned conditions, thus avoiding most of the associated drawbacks. We have employed amorphous TiOx, although the presented results can be easily extrapolated to other materials and conditions. It is found that the proposed method improves 400% the growth rate of TiO2 thin films.