Dr. Martin Kordesch, Professor of Physics, will present a paper on “Sputter Deposition of Amorphous Thin Films and Nanoparticles” at the XII Brazilian Materials Research Society Sept. 29 to Oct. 3 in Campos do Jordao, Brazil.
Dr. Martin Kordesch
“Magnetron sputtering is a useful way to deposit alloys and solid-solid mixtures that would be difficult using other methods because the deposited materials are ‘hot’ in the plasma and are then thermally quenched on the substrate. Usually, sputter deposition onto unheated or actively cooled substrates results in amorphous thin films. The as– deposited sputtered thin films do not usually separate into individual phases, even at large concentrations of dissimilar materials,” says Kordesch in his abstract. “Using reactive sputtering from metal targets we have grown a wide variety of semiconductor alloys, oxides and nitrides for optical coatings, electronic devices and for light emission using rare earth doping. Recently we have also deposited nanoparticles and nanoparticle thin films using an RF sputter source for the production of nanoparticle beams using the inert gas condensation method. We have also made pressed powder targets for argon sputtering of specific alloys and dopants.
“The amorphous nature of the sputter deposited thin films eliminates the need for epitaxy, specialized substrates and buffer layers. However, electronic doping and electron conduction in amorphous thin films is difficult. This fact explains why there are not many amorphous analogs to crystalline thin film devices.”
Several examples of devices, solar cells, photocathodes and photodetectors using the amorphous InGaN compounds and related materials will be presented.
Graduate student Sneha Pandya in Kordesch’s lab.
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