Studies on sputtering process of multicomponent Zr-Ti-Cu-Ni-Be alloy thin films

Sputter deposition process of a multicomponent Zr-Ti-Cu-Ni-Be metallic alloy has been studied experimentally and by numerical simulations. Monte-Carlo simulations were performed using a model based on thermalization and diffusion of sputtered atoms. Incident energy and angle of sputtered atoms on substrate were obtained from simulations. The incident angular distribution was observed to be a normal distribution at all sputtering pressures. Average incident kinetic energy of the condensing atoms on the substrate was observed to be 0.2-0.3 eV indicating most of them are thermalized. Simulations were extended to predict compositional variations in films prepared at various process conditions. These results were compared with composition of films determined experimentally using Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS). Contents of Zr, Ti, Cu and Ni quantified using RBS were in moderate agreement with the simulated composition. Be could not be quantified accurately by RBS largely due to very low energy peak of Be in the spectrum. These studies are shown to be useful in understanding the complexities in multicomponent sputtering.