Possible deviations in the real process were accepted at this point and the determination was only used to generate suitable changes in the process pressure via the control of the argon flow, whereas the actual experiments proceeded from a lower range of process pressure to a higher range process pressure. In a real sputtering process, deviations are to be expected due to target poisoning, getter processes, and the chosen operating point, which means that the chamber pressure will be slightly lower or higher than predicted, depending on the choice of the operating point. The values of 120 sccm, 160 sccm, and 200 sccm were selected as suitable process gas settings and the investigation of the hysteresis behavior at the three predefined process gas settings commenced. As described in Chapter 3.1 in Figure 2, three hysteresis courses of the target poisoning were recorded using this procedure of hysteresis determination. Figures 3, Figure 4, and Figure 5 portray the determination of working points from three hysteresis experiments, whereby the choice of the working points in each case was made from the transition area of the target poisoning. All three experiments were determined at a constant target power of 7.0 kW. The hysteresis of Figure 3 was determined at a constant argon flow of 120 sccm, while that in Figure 4 was measured at 160 sccm and Figure 5 at 200 sccm. Three operating points were selected from each of the three hysteresis patterns, resulting in a total of nine experimental settings.