Huge increase in gas phase nanoparticle generation by pulsed direct current sputtering in a reactive gas admixture

Using reactive DC sputtering in a gas aggregation cluster source, we show that pulsed discharge gives rise to a huge increase in deposition rate of nanoparticles by more than one order of magnitude compared to continuous operation. We suggest that this effect is caused by an equilibrium between slight target oxidation (during time-off) and subsequent sputtering of Ti oxides (sub-oxides) at time-on with high power impulse. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.