Method and apparatus for forming fluoride thin film
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorSatoshi Takaki
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Abstract
There are provided a method and an apparatus for forming a fluoride thin film having a desired refractive index and no absorption throughout a range including the ultraviolet region and the visible region, using a sputtering method. The method of forming a fluoride thin film according to the present invention is a method of forming a metal fluoride thin film on a substrate by performing reactive sputtering with a gas comprising fluorine by use of a metal target, which comprises irradiating a gas comprising fluorine with electrons having an energy less than the ionization energy of the gas comprising fluorine to activate the gas and introducing the activated gas into a reaction apace, thereby performing sputtering.
Claims8
A thin film forming method of forming a metal fluoride thin film on a substrate by performing reactive sputtering, which comprises sputtering a metal target with a first gas, and irradiating a second gas comprising fluorine with free electrons having a kinetic energy in electron volts less than the an ionization energy of the second gas to activate the second gas without generating a plasma, and thereafter, introducing the activated second gas into a space in the vicinity of the substrate.
A thin film forming apparatus for forming a metal fluoride thin film on a substrate by performing reactive sputtering with a gas comprising fluorine by use of a metal target, which comprises:
- a first gas supply means for introducing a sputtering gas into the vicinity of the metal target,
- a second gas supply means for introducing a gas comprising fluorine into the vicinity of the substrate, and
- an electron source for irradiating the gas comprising fluorine with free electrons having a kinetic energy less than the an ionization energy of the gas comprising fluorine to activate the gas comprising fluorine without generating a plasma.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.