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Nanomechanical properties of Nb films deposited by pulsed frequency magnetron sputtering

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Abstract

The fabrication of niobium-based devices requires precision and reliability and, consequently, the characterization and description of their mechanical properties. However, there are few studies in the literature on mechanical properties characterization, even less so at the nanoscale, where new technologies require this knowledge. In this work, we study the dependence of the morphology, nanomechanical properties, and friction of niobium films on the pulsed frequency during DC sputtering. Niobium films without oxide in their bulk and bcc crystal structure were deposited at room temperature on Si (100) substrate under sputtering pulse frequencies of 20, 100, and 350 kHz. As the pulsed frequency increased, the morphology changed from granular to flake-like, indicating a change in the atomic accommodation due to the increase in the niobium ion energy during the plasma sputtering, which resulted in an increase in the elastic modulus of films. Elastic modulus maps into an area of 1 µm × 1 µm revealed local variations for films with flake-like morphology. Increasing the pulsed frequency in plasma sputtering at 100 and 350 kHz resulted in films with higher elastic modulus flakes and higher attenuation of the ultrasonic wave during nanomechanical mapping, which was related to dissipative forces due to lateral friction, while the granular morphology and lower elastic modulus of films deposited at 20 kHz was associated with friction at interfaces.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge CONAHCyT for the grants received through the projects FOINS-CONACyT 2016-01-2488, CF-2023-I-1429, and VIEP-BUAP projects ID:00169 and ID:00224. The authors thank Dr. Ulises Salazár Kuri and the XRD-IFUAP Laboratory for their support in the XRD measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Física, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Ciudad Universitaria, Edif. IF-1, 72570, Puebla, México

    J. G. Medrano

  2. Centro de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados (CINVESTAV) IPN, Unidad Querétaro, Lib. Norponiente 2000, Real de Juriquilla, 76230, Querétaro, México

    J. Raboño-Borbolla, O. Cortazar-Martínez & A. Herrera-Gómez

  3. CONAHCYT–Instituto de Física, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Edif. IF-1, Ciudad Universitaria, 72570, Puebla, México

    F. J. Flores-Ruiz

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Contributions

JGM was involved in writing—original draft, visualization, conceptualization, investigation. JRB, OCM, and AEG helped in validation, investigation, data curation. FJFR contributed to funding acquisition, visualization, investigation, supervision.

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Correspondence to F. J. Flores-Ruiz.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

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Medrano, J.G., Raboño-Borbolla, J., Cortazar-Martínez, O. et al. Nanomechanical properties of Nb films deposited by pulsed frequency magnetron sputtering. J Mater Sci 58, 14556–14569 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-023-08928-z

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