Film deposition system

A film deposition system for depositing a film of material onto a target comprising:

• a housing within which the target is located and within which a high vacuum region may be formed;
• a crucible containing material to be deposited;
• a cooling element for vaporizing said material in said crucible;
• a nozzle for ejecting vaporized material from said crucible therethrough into said high vacuum region to form non-ionized clusters by adiabatic expansion, the clusters traveling in a first direction through said high vacuum region, the direction being non-coincident with said target;
• an electron stripper having an anode and a cathode to inject electrons into said non-ionized clusters to ionize a percentage of said non-ionized clusters into ionized clusters;
• accelerator plates for establishing an electric field to accelerate said ionized clusters;
• and
• deflecting plates for establishing an electric field to deflect said ionized clusters in a second direction coincident with said target.

A film deposition system for depositing a film of first and second materials onto a common target comprising:

• a housing within which said common target is located and within which a high vacuum region may be found;
• first and second crucibles each containing respective first and second materials to be deposited;
• first and second nozzles for ejecting vaporized material from said first and second crucibles respectively therethrough into said high vacuum region to form non-ionized clusters by adiabatic expansion, the clusters traveling in first and second directions respectively through said high vacuum region, each of the directions being non-coincident with said common target;
• first and second means for independently converting a portion of said non-ionized clusters of said first and second materials into respective ionized clusters of said first and second materials;
• first and second means for accelerating said ionized clusters of said first and second materials;
• and
• first and second means for deflecting said ionized clusters of said first and second materials in a third and fourth direction, respectively, both of which third and fourth directions are coincident with said common target, to result in a flow of non-ionized clusters of said first material along said first direction which are not deposited on said common target, a flow of non-ionized clusters of said second material along said second direction which are not deposited on said common target, a flow of ionized clusters of said first material along said third direction which are deposited as a portion of said film on said common target and a flow of ionized clusters of said second material along said fourth direction which are deposited as a portion of said film on said common target.

A method of generating a partially ionized atomic oxygen beam including the steps of:

• placing oxygen in a crucible;
• cooling the oxygen until its vapor pressure is reduced to a level permitting formation of atomic clusters of said oxygen upon adiabatic expansion into a high vacuum region;
• expanding said oxygen through an exit nozzle of said crucible into a high vacuum region to form atomic clusters;
• ionizing a selected percentage of said atomic clusters;
• and
• accelerating said ionized clusters to a predetermined kinetic energy.

A method for depositing a film of material onto a target comprising the steps of:

• placing the material to be deposited in a crucible;
• vaporizing said material in said crucible;
• ejecting the vaporized material through a nozzle of said crucible into a high vacuum region to expand the material adiabatically and to form non-ionized atomic clusters traveling in a first direction non-coincident with the target;
• converting a selected percentage of said non-ionized clusters into ionized clusters;
• deflecting said ionized clusters to travel in a second direction coincident with said target;
• and
• accelerating said ionized clusters traveling in said second direction.

A deposited material having a substantially continuously varied composition of at least two compounds, the material being the product of the process of:

• depositing ion clusters of a first compound on a substrate;
• simultaneously depositing ion clusters of a second compound on the substrate, the first and second compounds comprising at least a portion of the material;
• and
• varying the deposition rate of the second compound relative to the first compound substantially continuously during the deposition of the ion clusters of the first and second compounds so that the material has a substantially continuously varied composition.

An ion cluster beam film deposition system, comprising:

• (a) a deposition chamber including a target area for deposition of a film;
• (b) means for introducing controlled amounts of a cluster beam of clusters of a material to the chamber;
• (c) means for controllably ionizing a predetermined portion of the clusters in the cluster beam to prepare an ion cluster beam;
• (d) means for deflecting the ionized clusters in the ion cluster beam from a first path non-coincident with the target area into a second path coincident with the target area so that the ionized clusters collide with the target area and are incorporated into the film while the nonionized clusters miss the target area.

A method for preparing a controllable atomic oxygen beam having a predetermined energy, comprising the steps of:

• (a) creating a cluster beam of oxygen clusters;
• (b) ionizing a portion of the oxygen clusters in the beam;
• (c) accelerating the ionized clusters to a predetermined energy;
• (d) separating the ionized clusters from the beam.

A controller for an ion cluster beam deposition system, the controller allowing substantially linear control of the deposition of a material on the target area, the controller comprising:

• (a) means for creating a cluster beam of the material at a predetermined rate;
• (b) ionizing means for creating a predetermined and controllable portion of ionized clusters in the beam;
• and
• (c) means for separating the ionized clusters from the nonionized clusters.