Effect of N₂ Content in Ar-N₂ Gas Mixture on Properties of Ag Films Deposited by Magnetron Sputtering

Ag films were prepared on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) base film by magnetron sputtering using Ar-N₂ gas mixture with different N₂ content as sputtering gas. The effects of N₂ content on dynamic deposition rate, salt spray corrosion resistance and reflectivity of the Ag film were studied. The results show that with the increase of N₂ content, the grain size of the prepared Ag film gradually decreased, the corrosion rate in salt spray, dynamic deposition rate and reflectivity decreased gradually. In terms of production efficiency and properties, it was preferable to use the Ar-N₂ gas mixture sputtering Ag film process with N₂ volume fraction of 20%. The dynamic deposition rate of the Ag film prepared by the preferable process was 95% of that of Ag film prepared with pure Ar, while the reflectivity was only reduced from 93.8% that of the Ag film prepared with pure Ar to 93.4%, and the corrosion rate in salt spray was reduced to about 22% of that of Ag film prepared with pure Ar.