Abstract
Abstract This paper discusses the DC magnetron sputtering of aluminium targets with argon–nitrogen gas mixtures. To elucidate the mechanisms dominating the incorporation of nitrogen in the resulting AlN x films, the dependences of nitrogen consumption and fractional target coverage were investigated in the partially reactive mode. The experiments show that the nitrogen consumption is proportional both to the discharge current and to the ratio of nitrogen partial pressure to argon partial pressure. The target coverage is also linearly dependent on this ratio. These results can be interpreted as an effect of intermediate target ion plating: only the amount of nitrogen in the films which has been previously plated on the target surface is incorporated.
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