Production and investigation of thin film on alumina ceramic for metalization using magnetron sputtering technique

Metallic elements have always been intriguing materials throughout history. Due to their superior physical, chemical, and electrochemical properties, these elements are used in various application areas. Therefore, in this thesis, metal materials such as titanium (Ti), silver (Ag), and copper (Cu) were produced as thin films on alümina (Al2O3) using the magnetron sputtering technique. Surface measurements revealed that the layered structure's roughness values were high. This situation is attributed to the roughness of the ceramic substrates. The roughness value (Rq) of the produced thin films is in the nanometer range. This result demonstrates that the coating method can achieve nanometer-scale surfaces in metal films. No cracks were observed on the metal surfaces in FESEM images, which indicates that the layer and coating technique used is appropriate and successful. However, the images also showed that the surface is porous and contains numerous peaks and valleys. The peaks obtained from the Raman measurements of the produced layered thin films belong to the copper material. Due to the thinness of the produced films, some peaks in the Raman patterns originated from silver. The intensity of the peaks decreased as a result of the Raman spectrum. In this study, shifts were observed in the peak centers of the Raman patterns obtained from the coated structures. This shift is due to stress or defects arising during coating and from the underlying layers. According to the literature, this shift can be attributed to differences in the average grain size of the produced films. The decrease in the average grain size of the copper film caused a shift in the wave number on the x-axis towards higher values, known as the redshift. The red shift phenomenon can be explained by the porosity of the surface and the density of various defects formed during coating. This phenomenon has been reported by multiple researchers at the nano-scale. Keywords: Magnetron sputtering, Thin film, Alümina ceramic, Physical properties, Physical vapor deposition.