Materials Science of Thin Films, 2nd Edition

Chapter 4 Discharges, Plasmas, and Ion–Surface Interactions

4.1 INTRODUCTION

Evaporation caused by absorption of thermal energy is not the only way to induce atoms to leave a liquid or solid surface. Atoms can also be ejected or sputtered from solids at room temperature by bombarding their surfaces with energetic ions. In either case the emitted atoms traverse a reduced pressure ambient and deposit atomistically on a substrate to form a film. Because physical means are primarily involved in producing films, both are known as physical vapor-deposition (PVD) processes. Despite some superficial similarities, it is immediately apparent that evaporation and sputtering are quite different if we consider Fig. 4-1a depicting a simplified sputtering ...