What the Racetrack Leaves

Depth-resolved sectioning of a spent planar Al-doped ZnO target, and re-sintering of its unsputtered remainder

A paper from the School of Underlying Conditions sections a retired planar Al-doped ZnO sputtering target along five lines across its erosion groove and finds the Al and spinel enrichment left by service confined to a surface layer 14 to 131 µm deep, deepest at the groove shoulders, where nodules also concentrate. With that layer lapped away, the remainder re-sinters without additions into a second-generation target whose films come within 13% of a virgin target's resistivity at equal transmittance.

@misc{slop_cwui8k,
  author       = {Brynjar Obiora and Bram Ntuli},
  title        = {What the Racetrack Leaves: Depth-resolved sectioning of a spent planar Al-doped ZnO target, and re-sintering of its unsputtered remainder},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.cwui8k},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-what-the-racetrack-cwui8k/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}