Role of substrate bias during deposition of magnetron sputtered Ni, Ti and Ni-Ti thin films

The present work aims to know how cosputtered NixTi1-x thin films differ from pure Ni and pure Ti thin film. Ni thin films exhibited < 111 >. texture irrespective of substrate bias voltage, while film surface roughness as revealed by atomic force microscopy was sensitive to biasing. The negative substrate bias voltage induced a change in preferential orientation of Ti thin films. On the other hand, Ni-Ti thin films exhibited amorphous nature irrespective of substrate bias voltage. The stability of the crystal structure of pure Ni, pure Ti films and that of amorphous structure of NixTi1-x films under high ion bombardment could be predicted by classical molecular dynamics based on embedded atom method potential.