Characteristics of Ultrathin Ni Films

Abstract

Conductive and transparent ultra-thin Nickel films are grown by RF sputtering on fused silica substrates. The characteristics of Ni films (thickness, refractive index, and extinction coefficient) are obtained by fitting multi-angle spectrophotometric and ellipsometric data. Films thickness inferred by X ray reflection (XRR) measurements is in good accordance with ellipsometric results. XPS analysis reveals that Ni metal phase is present in the film surface together with Ni mixed oxide phases, which explains the high electrical stability of such films.