[labnetwork] Erbium sputtering

[Jacob Trevino]

Hi Chito,

Back when I was at Boston University, we used to co-sputter erbium and silicon in the presence of nitrogen to make an erbium doped SiNx film for photonic applications. It was on old Denton system with no load lock. Erbium will oxidize as you mentioned, so when opening the chamber to pull out the target, we quickly would get it into a nitrogen box. No matter what, there is always some small amount of oxidation. We would just perform a pre-sputter prior to deposition to clean off the oxidized portion prior to the deposition or some of the group members claimed a scrubbing with a Brillo pad would work even better. I’ve heard of some people storing oxidizing targets in vacuum sealed bags between runs or also in oils of some sort, but I personally have never done that. I’m sure others have better tricks of the trade.

Best,
Jacob


--
Jacob Trevino, PhD
NanoFabrication Facility Director |Research Associate Professor
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From: <labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu> on behalf of Chito Kendrick <cekendri at mtu.edu>
Date: Wednesday, June 21, 2017 at 10:33 PM
To: "labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu" <labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu>
Subject: [labnetwork] Erbium sputtering


I have a user that is wanting to sputter Erbium. From a quick search Erbium is pretty reactive with air and both our sputters are not load locked and so the target would be coming up to atmosphere when un/loading. Has anyone had experience with sputtering of Erbium and if there will be issues? I have not talked to the user about what they want to do exactly, but it sounds like they want to produce Er nanoparticles in a silicon thin film.

Regards,

Chito Kendrick

--
Chito Kendrick Ph.D.<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__sites.google.com_site_chitokendrickphd_&d=DwMCaQ&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=9dWg_d1_YXyDRVxzMEwlq5Akv0Uf3iO4dQVECAWcYPI&m=izqkhtJQOJql5BkmFJ7Tt2Ko6Mii04usJW0q3_hd8SE&s=PROKf_BByEzScMyH8D2heS6jJhL_xbFZrcl1ATbjN7w&e=>

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