Deposition of ZrO and TiO Thin Films Using RF Magnet ron Sputtering Method and Study on Their Structural Characteristics

Thin films of ZrO$_2$ and TiO$_2$ were deposited on Si(100) substrates using RF magnetron sputtering technique. To study an influence of the sputtering parameters, systematic experiments were carried out in this work. XRD data show that the $ZrO_2$ films were mainly grown in the [111] orientation at the annealing temperature between 800 and $1000^{\circ}C$ while the crystal growth direction was changed to be [012] at above $1000^{\circ}C$. FT-IR spectra show that the oxygen stretching peaks become strong due to $SiO_2$ layer formation between film layers and silicon surface after annealing, and proved that a diffusion caused by either oxygen atoms of $ZrO_2$ layers or air into the interface during annealing. Different crystal growth directions were observed with the various deposition parameters such as annealing temperature, RF power magnitude, and added $O_2$ amounts. The growth rate of $TiO_2$ thin films was increased with RF power magnitude up to 150 watt, and was then decreased due to a sputtering effect. The maximum growth rate observed at 150 watt was 1500 nm/hr. Highly oriented, crack-free, stoichiometric polycrystalline $TiO_2$<110> thin film with Rutile phase was obtained after annealing at $1000^{\circ}C$ for 1 hour.