Reactive magnetron sputtering of thin films: present status and trends

This paper gives a critical review of the present state of the knowledge in the field of dc reactive magnetron sputtering of compound films. It analyses (i) the hysteresis effect and the methods of its elimination, (ii) problem of stability of reactive sputtering and (iii) deposition of transparent oxides in the transition mode of sputtering. It shows the conditions under which oxides are reactively sputtered with high deposition rates aD oxide achieving up to approximately 77% of that of a pure metal aD Me, i.e. aD oxide/aD Me≈0.77. A special attention is devoted to the elimination of arcing in sputtering of insulating films using pulsed dual magnetron or sputtering of oxides from a substoichiometric target. Also, the ion bombardment of films growing on insulating or unbiased substrates in dc pulsed magnetron sputtering is discussed in detail. As an example, a new possibility to form superhard single-phase films based on solid solutions using dc reactive magnetron sputtering is shown. At the end, future trends in dc reactive magnetron sputtering are outlined.