Evaporated epitaxial chromium films

Abstract

Vanadium and vanadium oxide thin films are deposited by DC magnetron sputtering. A first series of pure vanadium films are prepared by glancing angle deposition (GLAD). The incident angle α of the particle flux is systematically changed from 0 to 85°. For the second series, the angle α is kept at 85° and oxygen gas is injected during the growth by means of the reactive gas pulsing process (RGPP). A constant pulsing period P = 16 s is used whereas the oxygen injection time tON is varied from 0 to 6 s. After depositing, films are annealed in air following 11 incremental cycles from room temperature up to 550 °C. For both series, the DC electrical resistivity is systematically measured during the annealing treatment. Vanadium films sputter deposited by GLAD become sensitive to the temperature for incident angles α higher than 60°. The most significant annealing effect is observed for films prepared with α = 85° with a strong increase of resistivity from 2.6 × 10− 5 to 4.9 × 10− 3 Ωm. It is mainly assigned to the oxidation of GLAD vanadium films, which is favoured by the high porous morphology produced for the highest incident angles. The resistivity vs. temperature evolution is also measured and related to the occurrence of the VO2 phase. By combining GLAD and RGPP processes, the reversible variation of resistivity associated to the VO2 phase is even more pronounced. Oxygen pulsing during deposition and the voided structure produced for the highest incident angles enhance the oxidation of vanadium through the films thickness. The porous architecture by GLAD and the oxygen injection by RGPP have to be carefully controlled and optimized for the growth of vanadium oxide compounds, especially to favour the formation of the VO2 phase.