Effects of oxygen pressure in reactive ion beam sputter deposition of zirconium oxides

The mechanism of reactive ion beam sputtering is investigated. The experimental results indicate that the pressure decrease during sputtering, the properties of Zr--O films, and the deposition rate are all strongly influenced by oxygen partial pressure. A new model which takes into account the gettering action of the deposition material and deals with the number of sputtered and gaseous particles is presented for reactive ion beam sputtering of metal. The theoretical values are compared with experimental results of the reactive ion beam sputtering. It is found that the calculated values agree extremely well with the oxygen partial pressure decrease and the deposition rate measured experimentally