DC and high current pulsed magnetron discharge for generation of boron plasmas

Abstract

During the last decade the high power impulse magnetron sputtering technique (HiPIMS) has been developed intensively. A self-sputtering mode can be realized using HiPIMS, for a limited number of materials used as a sputtering target, which is characterized by a fraction of target material ions in the discharge plasma at least more than a half. Pure boron is almost nonconductive and therefore conventionally requires heating of the target to operate as a magnetron discharge or vacuum arc cathode. The results of study of dc and high power pulsed magnetron discharge with pure boron target are presented. It is shown that the low-current dc discharge enables high power impulse magnetron sputtering, which, in turn, results in the self-sputtering mode of the pure boron target magnetron discharge operation, in which boron ion fraction in the discharge plasma reaches 57%. The results of such technique of boron plasma generation in comparison with vacuum arc are discussed.