Improved electrical properties of silicon-incorporated anodic niobium oxide formed on porous Nb-Si substrate

In the present study, porous Nb-Si alloy films with isolated nano-column morphology have been successfully developed by oblique angle magnetron sputtering on to aluminum substrate with concave cell structure. The deposited films are amorphous with the 15 at% silicon supersaturated into niobium. The porous Nb-15 at% Si films, as well as niobium films with similar morphology, are anodized at several voltages up to 50 V in 0.1 mol dm⁻³ ammonium pentaborate electrolyte. Due to the presence of sufficient gaps between neighboring columns, the gaps are not filled with anodic oxide, despite the large Pilling-Bedworth ratio (for instance, 2.6 for Nb/Nb₂O₅) and hence, a linear correlation between the reciprocal of capacitance and formation voltage is obtained for the Nb-15 at% Si. From the comparison with the anodic films formed on porous niobium films, it has been found that silicon addition improves the thermal stability of anodic niobium oxide; the change in capacitance and increase in leakage current become small for the Nb-Si. The findings indicate the potential of oblique angle deposition to tailor porous non-equilibrium niobium alloy films for high performance niobium-base capacitor.