Control of crystal orientation of Ti thin films by sputtering

We developed a new sputter deposition technique called sputter beam deposition (SBD) in which both the kinetic energy and the distribution of incident angles of the deposition particles are controlled. In this study, Ti films with hcp structure were deposited by both SBD and conventional dc magnetron sputtering. The crystal orientation of the film depended considerably on the kinetic energy of the depositing atoms. Film with c-axis orientation was obtained when most of the depositing atoms had energy below 1 eV, whereas film with hcp (100) orientation was obtained when most of them had energy above 1 eV. The distribution of the incident angles in SBD depended little on the sputtering gas pressure and had a similar distribution to that observed at a low gas pressure. The film deposited by SBD had much smoother surface than the film deposited by conventional magnetron sputtering.