Characterization of Mo-6Ta alloy targets and its magnetron sputtering deposited thin film

In this study, pure Mo and Mo-6Ta alloy targets were produced by a manufacturing method, which is called die pressing with a combination of cold isostatic pressing and hot-pressing sintering technology, and molybdenum thin films were deposited on corning glass substrates using a DC magnetron sputtering system. The effect of alloying with tantalum on the phase structure, grain size, orientation, thin film surface morphologies and electrochemical properties has been investigated by a variety of techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) with electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), four-probe resistivity tester, and electrochemical analyzer. The observation of the Mo targets reveals that this manufacturing technology with alloying of tantalum can reduce the target's grain size to lower than 50 μm with random grain orientation. The microstructure of the deposited Mo thin films indicates that the alloyed films have the higher deposition velocity with a dense fine grain structure and smoother surface. The sheet resistivity of the alloyed Mo film increases continuously with the increasing of the sputtering time, and eventually becomes higher than that of the pure Mo film. In electrochemical tests, both of the Mo films show capacitive reactance, and the capacitive arc radius of the alloyed Mo films are obviously larger than that of pure Mo films. The result of alloying with tantalum shows an increase in the corrosion potential of the Mo film from −0.5 V to −0.2 V, indicating improvement of the corrosion resistance of Mo films.