Structure and morphological study of nanometer W and W3O thin films

In this paper, the structure of nanometer tungsten thin films has been correlated to their surface morphology. Films have been deposited by RF-sputtering at a working pressure of 0.5 Pa and with a power density of 1.18 W/cm2. Two phases with different morphology have been observed: W3O with a nanograins structure is present in the first step of the tungsten growth; and, when the thickness is increased, a pure tungsten Wolfram phase (W) with a lamellar structure appears. We demonstrate that W3O is related to a pollution of the target surface between two growth runs. We succeed to suppress this phase and to obtain pure tungsten Wolfram nanolayer, in order to realize (W/WO3)n multilayer.