A transfer-rod-mounted rotatable sample holder enabling a compact modular vacuum system for ion-beam milling, oblique magnetron sputtering, and co-sputtering
Abstract
We present a novel multifunctional sample-holder concept for compact research-scale vacuum systems. The sample holder is mounted directly on the transfer rod and remains mechanically connected to it throughout loading, transfer, deposition, and ion-beam milling. In contrast to conventional layouts, no handover to a separate substrate stage is required. By combining axial transfer motion, rotation around the transfer-rod axis, and independent substrate rotation, the holder itself defines the relevant process geometries and enables standard deposition, oblique deposition at freely selectable incidence angles, substrate rotation, and co-sputtering from adjacent sources. A shielding plate integrated into the sample holder acts as both a substrate shutter and a source shield. This reduces the need for separate shutter mechanisms and allows a compact radial arrangement of four 2-inch magnetron sputter sources without source-tilting mechanisms. The concept was implemented in a modular vacuum system assembled from standard DN100CF components, combining a load lock, magnetron sputtering, and ion-beam milling. The system reaches a base pressure of 5 · 10−8 mbar without bakeout. The functionality of the sample-holder concept is validated by oblique deposition of Ta/CoFeB bilayers, which exhibit pronounced uniaxial in-plane magnetic anisotropy, and by co-sputtering of an Au--Ag composition series, whose resistivity follows the expected Nordheim-type composition dependence.
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BibTeX
@misc{schneider2026transferrodmounted,
title = {{A transfer-rod-mounted rotatable sample holder enabling a compact modular vacuum system for ion-beam milling, oblique magnetron sputtering, and co-sputtering}},
author = {Tiago de Oliveira Schneider and Folke Kaiser and Andreas Semrad and Peter Kießlich and Markus Meinert},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.17220},
eprint = {2609.17220},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.17220},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A transfer-rod-mounted rotatable sample holder enabling a compact modular vacuum system for ion-beam milling, oblique magnetron sputtering, and co-sputtering
AU - Tiago de Oliveira Schneider
AU - Folke Kaiser
AU - Andreas Semrad
AU - Peter Kießlich
AU - Markus Meinert
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/15
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.17220
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.17220
AB - We present a novel multifunctional sample-holder concept for compact research-scale vacuum systems. The sample holder is mounted directly on the transfer rod and remains mechanically connected to it throughout loading, transfer, deposition, and ion-beam milling. In contrast to conventional layouts, no handover to a separate substrate stage is required. By combining axial transfer motion, rotation around the transfer-rod axis, and independent substrate rotation, the holder itself defines the relevant process geometries and enables standard deposition, oblique deposition at freely selectable incidence angles, substrate rotation, and co-sputtering from adjacent sources. A shielding plate integrated into the sample holder acts as both a substrate shutter and a source shield. This reduces the need for separate shutter mechanisms and allows a compact radial arrangement of four 2-inch magnetron sputter sources without source-tilting mechanisms. The concept was implemented in a modular vacuum system assembled from standard DN100CF components, combining a load lock, magnetron sputtering, and ion-beam milling. The system reaches a base pressure of 5 · 10^−8 mbar without bakeout. The functionality of the sample-holder concept is validated by oblique deposition of Ta/CoFeB bilayers, which exhibit pronounced uniaxial in-plane magnetic anisotropy, and by co-sputtering of an Au--Ag composition series, whose resistivity follows the expected Nordheim-type composition dependence.
ER -