Abstract: A conductive film having high adhesion and low specific resistance is formed. A target containing copper as a main component is sputtered in vacuum ambience while an oxygen gas introduced, and then, a conductive film containing copper as a main component and additive metals, such as Ti or Zr, is formed. Such a conductive film has high adhesion to a silicon layer and a glass substrate and is hardly peeled off from the substrate. Furthermore, the specific resistance is low and the contact resistance to a transparent conductive film is also low. Thus, no deterioration in the electric characteristics occurs even when the conductive film is used for an electrode film. Accordingly, the conductive film formed by the present invention suited for TFT, and electrode films and barrier films of semiconductor elements, in particular.

Abstract: To obtain a method of producing a high-density lead zirconium titanate-based sintered body having uniform crystalline phases and containing a large amount of PbO, provided is a method of producing a lead zirconium titanate-based sintered body, including: producing a pre-sintered body by sintering raw material powder of lead zirconium titanate having a stoichiometric composition at a temperature of 900° C. or more and 1,200° C. or less; pulverizing the pre-sintered body; producing lead-excessive mixed powder by adding PbO powder to powder obtained by pulverizing the pre-sintered body; and sintering the lead-excessive mixed powder at a temperature lower than the sintering temperature of the pre-sintered body. Because the sintering process is divided into two stages, a high-density (e.g., 95% or more) PZT sintered body constituted only of PZT having a stoichiometric composition in which PbZrO3, PbTiO3, ZrO2, TiO2, PbO, and other intermediate compounds are absent, and excessive PbO can be obtained.

Abstract: A target is produced inexpensively by safely incorporating an additive which is inflammable in the atmosphere. A primary alloy in a molten state is formed by adding an additive into a principal material in a low-level oxygen atmosphere, and a secondary alloy is produced by increasing the volume of the primary alloy through adding the principal material to the molten primary alloy in the atmospheric atmosphere. Since the primary alloys in the molten or solid condition are stable, it does not ignite in the atmosphere. Since the volume of the primary alloy is smaller than that of the secondary alloy, a smaller size of a vacuum chamber 11 for the formation of the first atmosphere suffices.