Thin silicide films deposited from cast silicide targets

Abstract

In this study it is shown that cast targets of pure tungsten disilicide can be produced by means of a set of vacuum metallurgical techniques. Rectangular cast WSi 2 targets used in this study of laser ablation had a volume of 1.5 cm 3 and were chemically homogeneous. For magnetron sputtering, composite cast silicide targets 152 mm in diameter were produced. This study reveals the possibilities of depositing WSi 2 films by both the laser evaporation and magnetron sputtering of composite cast WSi 2 targets produced by vacuum levitation and electron-beam zone melting. The conditions of both laser evaporation and magnetron sputtering of cast targets which ensure the deposition of the tungsten disilicide films with a specific electrical resistivity of 50 μΩ cm have been studied. Grazing-beam incidence X-ray diffractometry, Auger electron spectrometry and Rutherford backscattering of helium ions were used to demonstrate that a tetragonal tungsten disilicide phase was the dominating phase in the films.