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Generation of singly charged Ar + and Ti +, doubly charged Ar 2 + and Ti 2 +, and of Ar 2 + and Ti 2 + dimer ions in a high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) discharge with a Ti cathode was investigated. Energy-resolved mass spectrometry was employed. The argon gas pressures varied between 0.5 and 2.0 Pa. Energy spectra of monomer ions are composed of low- and high-energy components. The energetic position of the high-energy component is approximately twice as large for doubly charged ions compared to singly charged ions. Intensities of Ar 2 + and Ti 2 + dimer ions are considerably smaller during HiPIMS compared to dc magnetron sputtering.

Angular distribution measurements have been carried out during High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS) of a titanium target and deposition of titanium and titanium oxide films. The HiPIMS system was operated at a repetition frequency f = 100 Hz with a duty cycle of 1%. Langmuir probe diagnostics has been carried out at a distance of 7.5 cm from the target at four different angles with respect to the surface normal of the target. Film properties were investigated by means of SEM, XR, and GIXD, and a dependence of film thickness and crystalline structure on the deposition angle is observed.

The paper is focused on investigation of enhanced metal (Cu) cluster growth in a source of Haberland's type using pulsed gas aggregation. The aggregation Ar gas was delivered into the cluster source in a pulse regime, which results in the formation of well pronounced aggregation pressure peaks. The pressure peaks were varied by varying the different pulse gas frequency at the same mean pressure kept for all experiments. Hence, we were able to study the effect of enhanced aggregation pressure on cluster formation. Time-resolved measurements of cluster mass distribution were performed to estimate the mass and particle flux. The paper demonstrates that pulse gas aggregation influences growth of Cu nanoparticles, i.e., cluster mass/size, mass flux, and particle flux emitted from the cluster source. It was found that cluster mass related quantities are strongly influenced by pulsed gas frequency; the highest value of mass flux appears at the most pronounced pressure peaks. On the other hand, the particle flux depends only slightly on the gas pulse frequency. The explanation based on cooling and thermalization of sputtered particles is discussed in the paper.