Evaporation-assisted high-power impulse magnetron sputtering: The deposition of tungsten oxide as a case study

Abstract

The deposition rate during the synthesis of tungsten trioxide thin films by reactive high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) of a tungsten target increases, above the dc threshold, as a result of the appropriate combination of the target voltage, the pulse duration, and the amount of oxygen in the reactive atmosphere. This behavior is likely to be caused by the evaporation of the low melting point tungsten trioxide layer covering the metallic target in such working conditions. The HiPIMS process is therefore assisted by thermal evaporation of the target material.