Tilt of the columnar microstructure in off-normally deposited thin films using highly ionized vapor fluxes

The tilt of the columnar microstructure has been studied for Cu and Cr thin films grown off-normally using highly ionized vapor fluxes, generated by the deposition technique high power impulse magnetron sputtering. It is found that the relatively large column tilt (with respect to the substrate normal) observed for Cu films decreases as the ionization degree of the deposition flux increases. On the contrary, Cr columns are found to grow relatively close to the substrate normal and the column tilt is independent from the ionization degree of the vapor flux when films are deposited at room temperature. The Cr column tilt is only found to be influenced by the ionized fluxes when films are grown at elevated temperatures, suggesting that film morphology during the film nucleation stage is also important in affecting column tilt. A phenomenological model that accounts for the effect of atomic shadowing at different nucleation conditions is suggested to explain the results. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.