Structural and electrical characteristics of highly textured oxidation-free Ru thin films by DC magnetron sputtering

Textured Ru thin films (∼120 nm) were deposited on Si and rolling-assisted biaxially textured Ni substrates by a DC magnetron sputtering technique with a two-step process. The biaxially textured pure Ni substrates with a thickness of 80 μm were fabricated by rolling followed by recrystallization. The alignments and the crystallinity of Ru films were analyzed by pole figures, as well as X-ray diffraction (θ − 2θ) analysis. The highly (0 0 2) oriented Ru films were fabricated on Si substrates, and four-fold symmetric Ru films on Ni(2 0 0) substrates. The resistivities of pure metallic Ru films were 20-80 μΩ cm for Ru on Si and 16-40 μΩ cm on Ni, respectively, which is sufficiently low to be used as a buffer layer in superconductor tapes or electrode materials in capacitor dielectrics.