What is Reactive Sputtering?

Sputtering is a common technique for Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD)China Hard film vacuum coating machine, one of the methods of producing Thin Film Coatings. Standard Sputtering uses a target of whatever pure material is desired, and an inert gas, usually argon.

If the material is a single pure chemical element, the atoms simply come off the target in that form and deposit in that form.

However, it is also possible to use a non inert gas such as oxygen or nitrogen either in place of, or (more commonly) in addition to the inert gas (argon). When this is done, the ionized non inert gas can react chemically with the target material vapor cloud and produce a molecular compound which then becomes the deposited film. For example, a silicon target reactively sputtered with oxygen gas can produce a silicon oxide film, or with nitrogen gas can produce a silicon nitride film.