Compositional gradients at the nanoscale in substoichiometric thin films deposited by magnetron sputtering at oblique angles: A case study on SiOx thin films

We demonstrate the existence of stoichiometric variations at the nanoscale when growing nanocolumnar SiOx thin films by reactive magnetron sputtering deposition at oblique angles. Results show stoichiometric variations in the range 0.3 < x < 1.3 when growing a SiO0.5 thin film. This agrees with results from a numerical growth model that obtains a shift…