Surface roughness of sputter-deposited gold films: a combined x-ray technique and AFM study
✍ Scribed by Schug, C.; Schempp, S.; Lamparter, P.; Steeb, S.
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 255 KB
- Volume
- 27
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0142-2421
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✦ Synopsis
We applied grazing incidence x-ray specular and non-specular reÑectivity (GIXR) and small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) to study the surface roughness of gold Ðlms on quartz glass substrates. Two model systems were prepared : one series of Au Ðlms was sputtered in Ar at 3 Â 10-3mbar (Au1 Ðlms) and one in residual air at 3 Â 10-1 mbar (Au2). The combined x-ray experiments showed that the Au1 Ðlms are compact and smooth, with-mean-square (rms) roughness values too low to be quantiÐed by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) or SAXS. The surfaces of Ðlm and substrate exhibit a strong cross correlation that is gradually lost with increasing Ðlm thickness. The surface height-height correlation functions are well described by a self-affine model. In contrast, as directly proved via AFM, the Au2 Ðlms consist of islands that are coarsening with increasing Ðlm thickness. The Ðlm surface showed no cross-correlation with the substrate surface at all. The SAXS curves from the Au2 Ðlms were attributed to a volume scattering e †ect, by interpreting the Ðlms in terms of a two-dimensional array of hard hemispheres.