How can I reduce the roughness of Sio2 deposited using Si Target ? Lowering the O2 percentage might help or increasing the power .I am running the process at 3mtorr deposition pressure.
Lowering the O2 percentage can produce oxygen deficient films.
and increase the sputtering power at you presently optimized conditions can increase the deposition rate, but you should have a good cooling to prevent any cracking of the silicon target.
In order to reduce the roughness actually you have to reduce the arrival of sputtered species onto your substrate arriving at oblique angles. Normally people introduce a metal sheet with tiny holes (3 to 4 mm dia) or even more in between the target and the substrate, so that only those sputtered specie ejected from the target arriving normaly to the substrate pass through the holes.
Definitely lower pressure will produce a better smooth film, compared to very high pressure where the oblique angle arriving specie increases.
K. Sreenivas
Thanks a lot K.Sreenivas. I guess lowering the pressure from 3mtorr might not give a stable plasma and also will heating up the substrate to 200 C help it to make it more smoother ?
First, you decrease the power (sputtering rate) usually this type of problem occurs when sputtering rate is high. Pressure is ok but you need to provide some negative potential at the substrate.
Decreasing the sputtering power with your optimised sputtering pressure and good base (less than 2x 10^-6 Torr) pressure can help you to obtain smooth film. But you have to be aware about the target- substance distance for getting smooth film.
Decreasing the power helped me but with the concern of very slow deposition rate.@Shahinur
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