The reactive sputtering of oxides and nitrides

Abstrad: Recent developments in the techniques used to produce surface layers of oxides and nitrides by reactive sputtering are considered. These techniques have to give films which can be produced onto large-area, low-temperature substrate materials, such as glass and polymer. It is shown that this has led to the adoption of ion-assisted processes. In particular the use of plasmas leaked from magnetron sputtering sources is shown to have the ability to create the intense low-energy bombardment that has been found to be most beneficial in forming the film structures that are required.