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Influence of target-substrate distance and sputtering power on chromium oxide films prepared by medium-frequency magnetron sputtering

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Wuhan University Journal of Natural Sciences

Abstract

Chromium oxide films were deposited on Si (100) substrates by medium-frequency (MF) unbalanced magnetron sputtering at different target-substrate distances D TS (60, 100, 120 mm) and sputtering power (2.8, 5.6, 11.2 kW), respectively. The structure, surface morphologies, and microhardness of the chromium oxide films were examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and microhardness tester. The results indicate that elevated MF sputtering power can improve the crystallization of the films; The D TS value affects the structure of the films by changing the preferential orientation from CrO3 (221) to Cr2O3 (116); The microhardness of the chromium oxide films is found to increase with the sputtering power. For preparing the Cr2O3-dominated films with comparatively high-performance, the optimized condition is the target-substrate distance of 100 mm and MF sputtering power of 11.2 kW.

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Correspondence to Dejun Fu.

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Foundation item: Supported by the Key Project of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (2009ZX04012-32)

Biography: YANG Huijuan, female, Master candidate, research direction: plasma surface engineering.

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Yang, H., He, J., Tian, C. et al. Influence of target-substrate distance and sputtering power on chromium oxide films prepared by medium-frequency magnetron sputtering. Wuhan Univ. J. Nat. Sci. 15, 440–443 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11859-010-0680-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11859-010-0680-0

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