Target voltage behaviour of a vanadium-oxide thin film during reactive magnetron sputtering**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 60806021).

Abstract

This paper simulates reactive magnetron-sputtering in constant current mode in a Vanadium-O2/Ar system equipped with a DC power supply by adopting both kinetics model and Berg's model. The target voltage during the reactive sputtering has been investigated as a function of reactive gas flow. Both experiments and simulations demonstrate a hysteresis curve with respect to the oxygen supply. The time-dependent variation of the target mode is studied by measuring the target voltage for various reactive oxygen gas flows and pre-sputtering times. The pre-sputtering time increases with the increased initial target voltage. Furthermore, a corresponding time-dependent model simulating target voltage changes is also proposed. Based on these simulations, we find some relationships between the discharge voltage behaviour and the properties of the formed oxide. In this way, a better understanding of the target voltage changes during reactive sputtering can be achieved. We conclude that the presented theoretical models for parameter-dependent case and time-dependent case are in qualitative agreement with the experimental results and can be used to comprehend the target voltage behaviour in the deposition of vanadium oxide thin films.