The effect of working gas pressure and deposition power on the properties of molybdenum films deposited by DC magnetron sputtering

Molybdenum films were deposited on Corning 7059 glass substrates by DC magnetron sputtering with different working gas pressures and sputtering powers. The structure and morphology, residual stress and adhesion, resistivity and optical reflectance of the as-deposited Mo films were investigated. The results show that Mo films deposited with high working gas pressure and low sputtering power have a spherical surface morphology, small grain size, residual compressive stress and a good adhesion, high resistivity and low optical reflectance. With the working gas pressure decreased and the sputtering power increased, Mo films have elongated spindle-shape or diamond flake shape surface morphology, the grain size is increased, with residual stress changed from tensile to compressive, a poor adhesion, resistivity decreased and optical reflectance increased.