Populations of metastable and resonant argon atoms in radio frequency magnetron plasmas used for deposition of indium-zinc-oxide films

Maaloul, L.; Morel, S.; Stafford, L.

doi:doi:10.1116/1.3674162

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Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A / Volume 30 / Issue 2 / Plasma Science and Technology

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J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 30, 021301 (2012); http://dx.doi.org/10.1116/1.3674162 (8 pages)

Populations of metastable and resonant argon atoms in radio frequency magnetron plasmas used for deposition of indium-zinc-oxide films

L. Maaloul, S. Morel, and L. Stafford

Département de Physique, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3C 3J7

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(Published online 6 January 2012)

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This work reports optical absorption spectroscopy measurements of the number density of Ar atoms in resonant (³P₁, ¹P₁) and metastable (³P₂, ³P₀) states in rf magnetron sputtering plasmas used for the deposition of ZnO-based thin films. While the density of Ar ³P₂ and ³P₀ was fairly independent of pressure in the range of experimental conditions investigated, the density of Ar ³P₁ and ¹P₁ first sharply increased with pressure and then reached a plateau at values close to those of the ³P₂ and ³P₀ levels at pressures above about 50 mTorr. At such pressures, ultraviolet radiation from resonant states becomes trapped such that these levels behave as metastable states. For a self-bias voltage of −115 V and pressures in the 5–100 mTorr range, similar number densities of Ar resonant and metastable atoms were obtained for Zn, ZnO, and In₂O₃ targets, suggesting that, over the range of experimental conditions investigated, collisions between these excited species and sputtered Zn, In, and O atoms played only a minor role on the discharge kinetics. The metastable-to-ground state number density ratios were also fitted to the predictions of a global model using the average electron temperature, T_e, as the only adjustable parameter. For all targets examined, the values of T_e deduced from this method were in excellent agreement with those obtained from Langmuir probe measurements.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The plasma reactor and diagnostics were acquired through the Leaders Opportunity Fund of the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI). Financial supports from Plasmionique, the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada, and the Fonds Québécois de Recherche sur la Nature et les Technologies are also acknowledged. The authors would like to thank Vincent M. Donnelly for providing the set of cross sections and the global model that were used in this work. Simon A. Bélanger and Jean-Sébastien Poirier are also acknowledged for their contributions to the development of the MATLAB codes that were used for some of the data analysis.

Article Outline

INTRODUCTION
EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP AND DIAGNOSTICS
1. Description of the plasma source
2. Optical absorption spectroscopy
EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
DISCUSSION
CONCLUSION

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KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

II-VI semiconductors, indium compounds, infrared spectra, plasma deposition, semiconductor thin films, sputter deposition, ultraviolet radiation effects, visible spectra, wide band gap semiconductors, zinc compounds

PACS

81.15.Cd

Deposition by sputtering
81.15.Jj

Ion and electron beam-assisted deposition; ion plating
52.77.Dq

Plasma-based ion implantation and deposition
78.66.Hf

II-VI semiconductors
78.30.Fs

III-V and II-VI semiconductors
78.40.Fy

Semiconductors

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History

Received 19 August 2011
Accepted 7 December 2011
Published online 6 January 2012

Digital Object Identifier

http://dx.doi.org/10.1116/1.3674162

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

0734-2101 (print)

1520-8559 (online)

Publisher

American Vacuum Society

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