Influence of Target-Substrate Distance and Sputtering Power on Chromium Oxide Films Prepared by Medium-Frequency Magnetron Sputtering

Chromium oxide films were deposited on Si(100) substrates by medium-frequency(MF) unbalanced magnetron sputtering at different target-substrate distances DTS(60,100,120 mm) and sputtering power(2.8,5.6,11.2 kW),respectively.The structure,surface morphologies,and microhardness of the chromium oxide films were examined by X-ray diffraction(XRD),atomic force microscopy(AFM),and microhardness tester.The results indicate that elevated MF sputtering power can improve the crystallization of the films;The DTS value affects the structure of the films by changing the preferential orientation from CrO3(221) to Cr2O3(116);The microhardness of the chromium oxide films is found to increase with the sputtering power.For preparing the Cr2O3-dominated films with comparatively high-performance,the optimized condition is the target-substrate distance of 100 mm and MF sputtering power of 11.2 kW.