Monte Carlo simulations concerning modeling DC and high power pulsed magnetron sputtering for Ti_3SiC_2 including high pressures and ion deposition probabilities

Jürgen Geiser

Preprint series: Institut für Mathematik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (ISSN 0863-0976), 17 pp.

MSC 2000

74A25 Molecular, statistical, and kinetic theories

Abstract
We motivate our study by simulating the particle transport of a thin film deposition process done by PVD (physical vapor deposition) processes. In this paper we present a new model taken into account a higher pressure regimes in a sputter process. We propose a collision models for projectile and target collisions in order to compute the mean free path and include the virial coefficients that considered interacting gas particles. A detailed description of collision models of the Monte Carlo Simulations is discussed for high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS) and DC sputtering in lower pressure regimes. We derive an equation for the mean free path for arbitrary interactions (cross sections) which (most important) includes the relative velocity between the projectiles and targets based on physical first principles and extend with higher order Virial terms . At the substrate we simulate the implantation of the particles with the help of TRIM, based on result of the energy that are computed with the Monte Carlo methods. We apply our results to three interaction models: hard sphere interaction, Screened Coulomb interaction and a mixture of the last mentioned interactions. The deposition to realistic geometries, which have sharp angles included, are presented. Because of the strong convective process of a HIPIMS method, the low diffusion process allows not to deposit into delicate geometries, see [Christ2005]. This can be improved by rotating the target to a more or less perpendicular angle.