Resputtering occurs when energetic sputtered material or energetically reflected gas atoms remove atoms from the growing film. We have demonstrated that in codeposition using a target with atomic mass significantly greater than the sputter gas, gas neutrals reflected from the target may strongly resputter film constituents. We have defined a resputter coefficient to provide a measure of the importance of this phenomenon. For a resputter coefficient of order unity, film composition may be altered by 10at%. The applicability of our resputter coefficients to a given codeposition system is not guaranteed, particularly if the substrate lies within 25° of substrate normal. For further details, please see the following papers:
Phys Rev B. 76 19. Nov 2007.
In Progress - to appear in J Vac Sci Tech A.
The following resputter coefficient gives an estimate of the importance of resputtering in the codeposition of elements A and B in an Ar gas, where A is the element being resputtered by Ar reflected from B. We anticipate target voltages in the 200V to 600V range will provide the most accurate results. A high enthalpy of mixing of A and B or immiscibility leading to rapid surface segregation may strongly affect the resputter coefficient. In the below calculator, coefficients less than 0.01 are rounded to zero.