Properties of Ag Thin Films Deposited in Oxygen Atmosphere Using in-line Magnetron Sputter System

Abstract

A study was made to examine the electrical, compositional, structural and morphological properties of Ag thin films deposited by DC magnetron sputtering in atmosphere with deposition temperature from room temperature to 15 using in-line sputter system. The Ag films deposited at temperature above in oxygen atmosphere gave a similar specific resistivity to and even lower oxygen content than those deposited using pure Ar sputter gas The Ag films deposited with pure Ar gas was mainly composed of crystallites with [111] preferred orientation, while, for those deposited in oxygen atmosphere, more than 50% of the volume was composed of crystallites with [100] orientation. The difference in the micro structure did not cause any difference in the specific resistivity of Ag films. The results showed that the transparent conducting oxide films and the Ag films could be processed sequentially in the same deposition chamber with careful control of deposition temperature, which might result in a cost reduction for constructing the large scale in-line deposition system.