An electron-beam-excited plasma (EBEP) apparatus produces high-density processing plasma. The plasma conditions are controlled by the parameters of the electron-beam source; discharge current (I
D) and accelerating voltage (V
A). As an instance of the applications, titanium nitride films are deposited as functions of I
D (3, 4, and 5A) and V
A (80, 90, and 100V) by ion plating technique under N
2 pressure of 0.1Pa. In this process, ion-beam is utilized in order to evaporate metal because ion current of the EBEP is high. Alumina (Al
2O
3), quartz (SiO
2), and silicon [Si(111)] of 10×10mm
2 are employed as substrates. The deposition time is constant of 1 hour. The films are evaluated from color, X-ray diffraction pattern, thickness and electrical conductivity. Regardless of substrate materials, the results are summarized as follows; (1) The deposited films consist of TiN and Ti
2N. (2) The formation of TiN becomes more dominant than that of Ti
2N as V
A increases, but changes little as I
D varies. (3) The film thickness increases as either V
A or I
D increases, and the values are up to 2μm.
Also, plasma condition is measured by spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and Langmuir probe method. The results are surmarized as follows; (1) As V
A increases, N
2 dessociates, and then N
+ in plasma markedly increases, but as I
D increases, the energy of particles in the plasma changes little. (2) The plasma density increases as either V
A or I
D increases.
From these results, it is found that the film composition and the deposition rate depend on the energy of particles in the plasma and the plasma density, respectively.
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