The effects of incident angle on C-axis orientation in sputtered Co-Cr films

The effects of the incident angle of the sputtered atoms on the crystallographic orientation in the Co-Cr films have been investigated in detail. Specimen films 1000 - 2000 Å thick were prepared by the Facing Targets Sputtering (FTS) system. The specially designed mask was used for collecting only the sputtered particles with the quasi-coherent incidence to the substrate. When the films are prepared at relatively low argon gas pressures, the effect of incident angle is not so apparent and the well c-axis oriented films can be obtained for the incident angle below 45°. This result indicate that the surface diffusion may be dominant over the incident angle for attaining the desired crystallographic orientation in the films when they are prepared at low working gas pressures. Owing to the unique target/substrate layout, the plasma-free FTS system with low working gas pressures may have much larger flexibilities for preparing the well c-axis oriented Co-Cr films as compared with the conventional sputtering systems or the vacuum evaporation one.