HiPIMS Ion Energy Distribution Measurements in Reactive Mode

In this paper, mass spectrometry was used to measure the ion energy distributions of the main species during the sputtering of an aluminum target in a reactive Ar + N(2) mixture. Both conventional magnetron sputtering (dc) and high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) were used. It appears that, in the HiPIMS, N(+) and Al(+) ions are significantly more energetic (up to 70 eV) than in the dc (< 40 eV). Furthermore, the HiPIMS Al(+) signal is two orders of magnitude greater than in the dc, and time-resolved measurements indicate that most of the ion flux hits the substrate during the OFF time of the impulse sequence.