In this paper, we proposed a new high-rate oblique deposition method using two sputtering sources to obtain SiO2 films for a liquid crystal alignment layer. One sputtering source that operates in a metal mode supplies Si atoms to a substrate, and the other source that operates in an oxide mode supplies oxygen radicals to a substrate. To reduce the gas pressure of a deposition chamber and make the two sputtering sources operate in different modes, the sputtering sources were separated from the deposition chamber with stainless meshes, and Ar and oxygen gases were introduced separately through the two sputtering sources, i.e., Ar gas was introduced through the Si supply source and oxygen gas was introduced through the oxygen radical source. When Ar gas of 30 sccm and oxygen gas of 4 sccm were introduced into the system, the gas pressure of the deposition chamber was maintained below 1.7 mTorr and the films deposited at an incidence angle of more than 70 showed an elongated inclined columnar structure. Under this condition, a deposition rate of 30 nm/min was realized even at an incidence angle above 70, where most of the Si atoms incident to the substrate were supplied by the Si supply source and the oxygen radical source supplied oxygen radicals and promoted the oxidation of the film.

An indirectly reactive sputtering coater has been developed to deposit various high quality metallic and metal oxide films at high deposition rate. In this letter, several kinds of filters such as antireflection (AR) coating, IR-cut filter, and Rugate filter were deposited for the benchmark test of implemental capabilities. Our coater was established to be a powerful tool for both discrete multilayer and Rugate filters due to high stability and reproducibility of the refractive index and the deposition rate.

Cuprous Oxide Cu2O films were deposited by reactive DC magnetron sputtering. The substrate temperature and oxygen partial pressure were found to be important parameters in controlling the film property. The single-phase Cu2O films were successfully obtained by carefully controlling the oxygen partial pressure with suppression of CuO formation. The (100)-oriented epitaxial Cu2O film was grown on the (102) surface of single-crystal Al2O3. The fundamental absorption edge of the Cu2O film was determined to be about 2 eV by photo-transmission measurement. The resistivity of the film was of the order of 105 Ωcm.

A new sputtering technique named "itshape limited reaction sputtering" is proposed and the feasibility toward an ultra-thin gate insulator is investigated. 5-10 nm thick ZrO2 films were prepared on Si(100) substrates and analyzed by XPS, HR-RBS and RHEED. Significant Zr diffusion into the Si substrate and interface oxidation were not observed. An optimum film was obtained at growth temperature of 300, oxygen flow rate of 4.2% and 500-10 sec RTA. The equivalent oxide thickness of 2 nm was realized with leakage current of 10-7 A/cm2 at 1.5 MV/cm.

Reactive sputtering of a metallic target in DC planar magnetron discharge shows a drastic mode transition between metallic and oxide modes. To describe the experimental results quantitatively, a new reactive sputtering model including the secondary electron emission coefficient of a target has been developed. The model is based on a simple reactive gas balance model proposed by Berg et al., and can quantitatively describe experimental results such as the oxygen flow rate dependence of deposition rate and discharge, observed for MgO sputter-deposition.

Employing reactive sputtering using an electron-cyclotron-resonance microwave plasma without oxidation process, high coercivity ferrite thin-films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy were successfully prepared without NiO underlayer at low substrate temperature. The ferrite thin-film deposited on glass substrate had smooth surface and were composed of small grains. Perpendicular recording was performed on the ferrite thin-film hard disk. The ferrite thin-films with high coercivity could be prepared on flexible film substrates (Polyimide and PET).