COMPACT-HEATING STAGE FOR USE IN SPUTTERING IN ACTIVE OXYGEN GAS ENVIRONMENTS

An easily movable compact heating stage for heating substrates in an o xidizing atmosphere up to a temperature of about 700 degrees C is desc ribed. A resistive heating element of Kanthal (72.5Fe-22Cr-5.5Al wt%) wire is used. The heating element is mounted inside a stainless steel vessel to isolate it from active oxygen gas environments. The vessel i s assembled in air of one atmospheric pressure at room temperature. Su bstrates are contacted for heating on the top plane of the vessel with a stainless steel substrate holder. In order to show the performance of the heating stage, the resistive transition property of a single cr ystal YBa2Cu3O7-x thin film formed by rf magnetron sputtering on a MgO (100) substrate heated by this stage is demonstrated. (C) 1996 Americ an Vacuum Society.