Texturing effects in molybdenum and aluminum nitride films correlated to energetic bombardment during sputter deposition

Molybdenum films sputter-deposited at low pressure show a (110) to (211) te xture turnover with increasing film thickness, which is accompanied by a tr ansition from a fiber texture to a mosaic-like texture. The degree of (002) texturing of sputtered aluminum nitride (AlN) films strongly depends on ni trogen pressure in Ar/N-2 or in a pure N-2 atmosphere. For the understandin g of these phenomena, the power density at the substrate during sputter dep osition was measured by a calorimetric method and normalized to the flux of deposited atoms. For the deposition of Mo films and various other elementa l films, the results of the calorimetric measurements are well described by a model. This model takes into account the contributions of plasma irradia tion, the heat of condensation and the kinetic energy of sputtered atoms an d reflected Ar neutrals. The latter two were calculated by TRIM.SP Monte Ca rlo simulations. An empirical rule is established showing that the total en ergy input during sputter deposition is proportional to the ratio of target atomic mass to sputtering yield. For the special case of a circular planar magnetron the radial dependence of the Mo and Ar fluxes and related moment um components at the substrate were calculated. It is concluded that mainly the lateral inhomogeneous radial momentum component of the Mo atoms is the cause of the in-plane texturing. For AlN films, maximum (002) texturing ap pears at about 250 eV per atom energy input.