Characterization of Structural Stability of Magnetron Sputtered Tungsten-Boron Thin Films at Elevated Temperatures

Medziagotyra 2023
Līga Avotiņa, Annija Elizabete Goldmane, Edgars Vanags, Aija Trimdale-Deksne, Lada Bumbure, Marina Romanova, Hermanis Sorokins, Alexei Muhin, Aleksandrs Zaslavskis, Gunta Kizane, Jurijs Dehtjars

In the divertor of the tokamak type fusion reactors tungsten and tungsten-covered plasma facing materials are currently among the selected materials. However, metallic, high-Z plasma facing materials require plasma mitigation. Recent researches show, that mitigation with boron can be used for optimizing plasma operations, while the interactions between boron containing plasma and tungsten plasma facing materials are less investigated. The formation of mixed layers and their behaviour under plasma operations as well as reactor maintenance procedures needs to be estimated. In order to estimate properties of tungsten-boron mixed layers, such layers can be produced by deposition methods, such as the magnetron sputtering technique and further characterized and analysed. Magnetron sputtered tungsten-boron films were oxidized up to 600 °C. Prior and after thermal treatment infrared spectra and electron microscopy images of the films were registered. For comparison, W films with no addition B of were deposited. Selected parts of the films were etched, to analyse temperature dependent edge effects. Mass changes at ~ 400 – 500 °C can be attributed to the corresponding oxidation processes. The structure analysis and infrared spectrometry show the formation of W-O and W=O bonds. The obtained results will be applied for recommendations for the production of W-B thin films for microelectronic devices.

Keywords
structural changes | thermal analysis | tungsten | tungsten boride
DOI
10.5755/j02.ms.32082
Hyperlink
https://matsc.ktu.lt/index.php/MatSc/article/view/32082

Avotiņa, L., Goldmane, A., Vanags, E., Trimdale-Deksne, A., Bumbure, L., Romanova, M., Sorokins, H., Muhin, A., Zaslavskis, A., Kizane, G., Dehtjars, J. Characterization of Structural Stability of Magnetron Sputtered Tungsten-Boron Thin Films at Elevated Temperatures. Medziagotyra, 2023, Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 280-284. ISSN 1392-1320. Available from: doi:10.5755/j02.ms.32082

Publication language
English (en)