The present invention relates to a magnetic recording medium including a substrate; an underlayer laminated upon the substrate; and a magnetic layer laminated upon the underlayer, wherein the underlayer includes a first underlayer containing a compound represented by a following general formula: MgO.sub.(1-X), where X is within a range of 0.07 to 0.25, the magnetic layer includes a first magnetic layer containing an alloy having a L1.sub.0 structure, and the alloy having the L1.sub.0 structure includes B, and the first underlayer is in contact with the first magnetic layer.

A film forming method is provided in which, when a dielectric film is formed by sputtering a target, the number of particles to get adhered to the surface of a to-be-processed substrate immediately after film formation can be decreased to the extent possible without impairing the function of effectively suppressing the induction of abnormal discharging. A film forming method, according to this invention, of forming a dielectric film on a surface of a to-be-processed substrate by sputtering a target inside a vacuum chamber includes: at the time of sputtering the target, applying negative potential to the target in the form of pulses; and a frequency of applying the negative potential in the form of pulses is set to a range of 100 kHz or more and 150 kHz or below and an application time (Ton) of the negative potential is set to a range of 5 μsec or longer and 8 μsec or shorter.

An electrically and magnetically enhanced ionized physical vapor deposition (I-PVD) magnetron apparatus and method is provided for sputtering material from a cathode target on a substrate, and in particular, for sputtering ceramic and diamond-like coatings. The electrically and magnetically enhanced magnetron sputtering source has unbalanced magnetic fields that couple the cathode target and additional electrode together. The additional electrode is electrically isolated from ground and connected to a power supply that can generate positive, negative, or bipolar high frequency voltages, and is preferably a radio frequency (RF) power supply. RF discharge near the additional electrode increases plasma density and a degree of ionization of sputtered material atoms.

A sputtering system and a sputtering method are provided. The sputtering system includes a first electrode, a magnet and a second electrode. The first electrode is an elongated tube having a first end and a second end downstream of the first end. The first end is configured to receive a gas flow and the second end is placed next to a substrate. The magnet surrounds at least a portion of the elongated tube and is configured to generate a magnetic field in a space within the elongated tube. The second electrode is disposed within the elongated tube. A voltage is configured to be applied between the first and second electrodes to generate an electric field between the first and second electrodes.

The invention relates to a method for producing a coated cutting tool in which a coating with at least one oxide layer is applied to a base layer by means of a PVD method. The method includes voltage-pulsed sputtering of at least one cathode metal selected from the group of aluminum, scandium, yttrium, silicon, zinc, titanium, zirconium, hafnium, chromium, niobium, and tantalum, as well as mixtures and alloys thereof in the presence of a reactive gas; and the depositing of at least one oxide layer formed by converting the reactive gas with the sputtered cathode metal onto the base body. The cathode metal includes at least aluminum. Dinitrogen oxide is used as the reactive gas. The at least one oxide layer is in the form of an oxide, mixed oxide, or oxide mixture of the at least one cathode metal.

In various embodiments, a sputtering target initially formed by ingot metallurgy or powder metallurgy and rejuvenated by, e.g., cold spray, is utilized in sputtering processes to produce metallic thin films.

A mask blank with phase shift film where changes in transmittance and phase shift to an exposure light of an ArF excimer laser are suppressed. The film transmits light of an ArF excimer laser at a transmittance of 2% or more and less than 10% and generates a phase difference of 150 degrees or more and 190 degrees or less between the exposure light transmitted through the phase shift film and the exposure light transmitted through the air for the same distance as a thickness of the phase shift film. The film has a stacked lower layer and upper layer, the lower layer containing metal and silicon and substantially free of oxygen. The upper layer containing metal, silicon, nitrogen, and oxygen. The lower layer is thinner than the upper layer, and the ratio of metal to metal and silicon of the upper layer is less than the lower layer.

A method is provided for forming a piezoelectric layer during a corresponding deposition sequence. The method includes sputtering aluminum nitride onto a sputtering substrate inside a reaction chamber having a gas atmosphere, the gas atmosphere initially including nitrogen gas and an inert gas, causing growth of the piezoelectric layer with a polarity in a negative direction. The method further includes adding a predetermined amount of oxygen containing gas to the gas atmosphere over a predetermined period of time, while continuing the sputtering of the aluminum nitride onto the sputtering substrate during a remainder of the deposition sequence, such that the piezoelectric layer is monolithic. The predetermined amount of oxygen containing gas causes the polarity of the aluminum nitride piezoelectric layer to invert from the negative direction to a positive direction, opposite the negative direction.

There is provided a solid electrolyte including at least one layer with no nitrogen and which includes Li.sub.xPO.sub.yS.sub.z, with 0<z≤3, 2.1≤x≤2.4, and 1≤y≤4. A battery including the electrolyte, and a method for producing the electrolyte, are also provided.

[Object] Provided are a laminate film and an electrode substrate film with excellent etching quality, in which a circuit pattern formed by etching processing is less visible under highly bright illumination, and a method of manufacturing the same.

[Solving Means] A laminate film includes a transparent substrate 60 formed of a resin film and a layered film provided on at least one surface of the transparent substrate. The layered film includes metal absorption layers 61 and 63 as a first layer and metal layers (62, 65), (64, 66) as a second layer, counted from the transparent substrate side. The metal absorption layers are formed by a reactive sputtering method which uses a metal target made of Ni alone or an alloy containing two or more elements selected from Ni, Ti, Al, V, W, Ta, Si, Cr, Ag, Mo, and Cu, and a reactive gas containing oxygen. The reactive gas contains hydrogen.