Innovative low temperature plasma approach for deposition of alumina films

Alumina films were deposited from a new plasma method using aluminum acetylacetonate (AAA) powder as precursor. The AAA was sputtered in argon and oxygen plasma mixtures. It was investigated the effect of the oxygen proportion (O2%) on the properties of the coatings. Deposition rate was derived from the layer height measured by profilometry. The elemental composition and molecular structure of the films were determined by Rutherford backscattering and infrared spectroscopies, respectively. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction was used to investigate the microstructure of the films while hardnes...