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P: Fachverband Plasmaphysik

P 9: Low Pressure Plasmas III

P 9.1: Hauptvortrag

Mittwoch, 18. März 2026, 11:00–11:30, KH 01.020

Controlling spokes in magnetron sputtering discharges — •Martin Rudolph — Leibniz Institute of Surface Engineering (IOM), Leipzig, Germany

Spokes in magnetron sputtering discharges are zones of enhanced excitation and ionization that rotate along the racetrack. Their visible properties like intensity and velocity are known to depend sensitively on discharge conditions. Very intense spokes appear under conditions of strong magnetic field and low working gas pressure. In this case, spokes stand out strongly with their high emission intensity against a relatively dim background along the racetrack. This suggests that the properties of film-forming species depositing onto a substrate is dominated by the presence of spokes. The control of spoke properties may thus be an additional means to tailor the particle flux and fine-tune thin film properties. In this contribution, we discuss how such a control can be achieved using typical process parameters. We show that spoke intensity can be tuned by adjusting the working gas pressure. Moreover, we demonstrate the deliberate excitation of spokes at a defined location by introducing a step in the magnetic field strength along the racetrack. Finally, we show that spoke velocities can be adjusted using the working gas pressure and discharge current with lower velocities observed at higher gas pressures and lower discharge currents. The controlled manipulation of spokes may in the future enable spokes engineering allowing thin film properties to be tailored through deliberate tuning of spoke characteristics.

Keywords: magnetron sputtering; HiPIMS; spoke instability