Growth kinetic study of sputter deposition: Ag on Si/SiO$_2$

S. Banerjee; S. Kundu

paper

Growth kinetic study of sputter deposition: Ag on Si/SiO $_{2}$

arXiv:cond-mat/0109184

Abstract

We have presented the kinetic study of the very initial growth stages of an ultra thin film (40 $A ˚$ - 150 $A ˚$ ) of Ag sputter-deposited on Si(001) substrate containing native oxide using grazing incidence x-ray reflectivity (GIXR) technique and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). We observe that the film consists of mounds with the presence of voids. The thickness `d_{xray}' and the packing fraction `η' of the film as a function of time `t' follow a simple power law, d_{xray} $\sim t^{m} an d η \sim$ t^{n} $w i t h t h ee x p o n e n t m = 0.58 an d n = 0.37 r es p ec t i v e l y . W e ha v e q u an t i t a t i v e l y d e t er min e d t ha tt h e v o i d s b e tw ee n t h e m o u n d s d ecr e a se a tt h e ini t ia l g r o w t h s t a g es w i t h t h e in cr e a se inm o u n d s i z e u s in g G I X R m e a s u r e m e n t . T h e m o u n d s i z e in cr e a ses main l y b y t h eco a l esce n ce p r ocesso n t h es u b s t r a t e . W e ha v eo b ser v e d t ha t a s a f u n c t i o n o f t im e t h e m o u n d s i z e R (t) in cr e a sesr a d ia l l y a s$ \thicksim $t^{z} . T h er a d ia l g r o w t h e x p o n e n t z cr osseso v er f r o m z > 0.5 t oz$ \thicksim $ 0.25 indicating two growth regimes. The GIXR measurement reveals sublinear dependence of ηon d and the AFM measurement shows a cross over of the radial growth exponent, both these indicates that the lateral growth of the mound is enhanced initially reducing the voids.

9 pages and 4 eps figures : modified manuscript

Growth kinetic study of sputter deposition: Ag on Si/SiO2​

Abstract

Growth kinetic study of sputter deposition: Ag on Si/SiO $_{2}$