IN-SITU ELLIPSOMETRIC DIAGNOSTICS OF MULTILAYER THIN-FILM DEPOSITION DURING SPUTTERING

In this work, in situ spectroscopic ellipsometry (in situ SE) is used to determine precisely the optical constants undisturbed by oxidation, and the growth rates of different metal and dielectric films deposite d by sputtering. In situ SE determines both the constant, and potentia lly changing growth rates during deposition of individual layers. The SE data were also taken during growth of metallic multilayers, from wh ich we determine the individual layer thicknesses to a fraction of an Angstrom. The in situ and ex situ ellipsometric analysis of a [Co/Au] multilayer on thick gold coated silicon, [Co/Pt] multilayers with a Pt underlayer, and SIC cladded TbFeCo layers are presented. Less than a few percent difference in multilayer period thickness was found by com paring low angle X-ray diffraction results to the in situ SE results. In situ SE also permitted studies of oxidation kinetics, which are imp ortant because oxidation in ultra thin films can strongly influence pr operties and performance of devices made with ultra thin multilayers. This research is especially relevant to the data storage industry, whe re control of ultra thin metallic layers is critical to reproducible m anufacture of both read-write heads and recording media. (C) 1998 Publ ished by Elsevier Science S.A.