Increasing the carbon deposition rate using sputter yield amplification upon serial magnetron co-sputtering

•Deposition rates of carbon in magnetron sputtering could be increased by target doping with Nb and W.•TRIDYN simulations have been performed which reproduce the experimental data.•The experiments find evidence for very long residual times of the dopant in the target as a result of recoil implantation.•The results can be readily used for deposition of doped carbon based thin films in industrial applications.

Deposition of carbon based materials by magnetron sputtering suffers frequently from the low deposition rate of carbon due to its low sputtering yield. Here, we describe an approach based on the so-called sputtering yield amplification, which significantly increases the sputtering yield. Carbon has been doped by serial co-sputtering with two different elements, namely tungsten and niobium. Both elements provide a significant rate increase. Addition of 3 at.% of Nb increases the deposition rate of carbon by 130%, whereas the same concentration of W increases it by 280%. TRIDYN simulations have been performed, which reproduce the experimental data. Additionally, our experiments find evidence for very long residence times of the dopant in the target as a result of recoil implantation.