Beschreibung:
Physical vapor deposition (PVD) refers to the removal of atoms from a solid or a liquid byphysical means, followed by deposition of those atoms on a nearby surface to form a thin filmor coating. Various approaches and techniques are applied to release the atoms includingthermal evaporation, electron beam evaporation, ion-driven sputtering, laser ablation, andcathodic arc-based emission. Some of the approaches are based on a plasma discharge, whilein other cases the atoms composing the vapor are ionized either due to the release of thefilm-forming species or they are ionized intentionally afterward. Here, a brief overview of thevarious PVD techniques is given, while the emphasis is on sputtering, which is dominated bymagnetron sputtering, the most widely used technique for deposition of both metallic andcompound thin films. The advantages and drawbacks of the various techniques are discussedand compared.