Dedicated Co-deposition System for Metallic Paramagnetic Films

We describe a dedicated co-sputtering/ion-mill system developed to study metallic paramagnetic films for use in magnetic microcalorimetry. Small-diameter sputtering guns allow study of several precious-metal paramagnetic alloy systems within a reasonable budget. We demonstrated safe operation of a 1″ sputtering gun at greater than five times the rated maximum power, achieving deposition rates up to ∼ 900 Å/min/gun (Cu) in our co-sputtering geometry. Demonstrated co-sputtering deposition ratios up to 100:1 allow accurate tuning of magnetic dopant concentration and eliminate the difficulty of preparing homogeneous alloy targets of extreme dilution.