Patent ID: 11885009
Assignee: UCHICAGO ARGONNE, LLC
Field: Surface technology, coating (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC C | IPC C

Claim 7:
8. A method of making a layered thin film, comprising:
forming a first layer comprising:
bombarding a substrate with first ions supplied from a first ion beam; and
sputtering by magnetron sputtering from a first metal sputtering target substantially simultaneously with the bombarding with the first ions supplied from the first ion beam to deposit a first metal-first ion thin film onto the substrate,

forming a second layer comprising:
bombarding the substrate with second ions supplied from a second ion beam while sputtering by magnetron sputtering from the first metal sputtering target, the bombarding with the second ions being performed after the bombarding with the first ions to form a layered structure of the first metal-first ion film and the first metal-second ion film, or
a further bombarding with first ions from the first ion beam, and sputtering from a second metal sputtering target substantially simultaneously with the further bombarding to deposit a second metal-first ion film onto the first metal-first ion film, the second metal sputtering target comprising one or more of metals,

wherein:
the method is performed in a single chamber as a closed system,
the bombarding and the sputtering are performed at a temperature less than 60° C. and in the presence of a non-reactive working gas as the only gas;
the first ions and the second ions, when present, consist of nitrogen, oxygen, ammonia, or any combination thereof and are only supplied through the respective one of the first or second ion beam;
the first ion beam and the second ion beam, when present, each has an energy in a range of 50 eV to 400 eV per ion;
the sputtering is performed at an energy density of about 10 W/in2 to about 50 W/in2;
the first metal sputtering target comprises niobium, aluminum, tungsten, alloys thereof or combinations thereof, and
one or both of the first layer and second layer comprises a superconducting transition metal film and the superconducting transition metal film is substantially uniform in one or more of crystal structure and crystal orientation.