Crystal growth and orientations in vacuum-condensed silver films and their systematic dependance on the residual air pressure, film thickness, rate of deposition and substrate temperature

Abstract

Grazing-incidence electron diffraction is used to show the surface structure and mode of growth of silver films condensed in vacuum, in relation to film thickness H, rate of deposition, substrate temperature and, especially, the residual gas nature and pressure p. In air at 7 × 10−6 to 7 × 10−3 torr, on glass at room temperature, silver deposited at 30-35 Å s−1 showed random polycrystalline initial structure up to a certain thickness, then {111} orientation, then additional {111} twinning, followed by {110} and later {110}+{211} orientation, at all these pressures. Additionally some hexagonal silver was present in films at 10−3 to 10−2 torr of air or nitrogen, but not oxygen. The thickness at which these orientations were first observed is approximately H=Kprime ln (p0/p), where Kprime and p0 are constants, p0 being approximately 2 × 10−2 torr.The {111} orientation results from {111} crystal faces being formed, and more rapid lateral growth and predominance of crystals with this face normal to the vapour stream. The {110} and {211} orientations appear to be due to secondary twinning combined with presence of {110} or {211} faces on the twins.A theory is developed which accounts well for the (H, ln p) rectilinear locus in terms of a Temkin isotherm for adsorption of the oxygen, and indicates a stepped nature of the {111} faces. The coverage fraction θ of the oxygen adsorption is estimated.At 60-160 Å s−1, the {111} orientation develops slightly earlier, but little or no twinning occurs at up to 12 000 Å film thickness.

Texturing of pure and doped CeO2thin films by EBPVD through target engineering

“…Any variation in the above parameters would inuence the migration energy of the adatom on the substrate during the growth process of the thin lm. 28 At the initial stage when the adatom arrives on the glass substrate, limited migration results in the nucleation to form island. Further arrival of adatom on the island results in increased migration energy of deposited atom.…”

“…Furthermore, the presence of dopant elements disturbs the thermodynamically stable state of the host atom as suggested by Dutta and Williams (DW). 28 The surface stability of CeO 2 (FCC) follow the tendency in the order of (111) > ( 200) > ( 220). 29 In this present work since all ebeam parameters were kept constant, the only change in the annealing temperature of target led to the preferential orientation of (111) plane in CeO 2 and (200) plane in SDC.…”

An electron diffraction study of oriented crystal growth in gold and copper films condensed in vacuum at oblique vapour incidence

“…For various FCC materials 6==-ki, where k is a constant, up to a certain angle of incidence i (Evans and Wilman 1952 for Fe, PbS, NaF;Bauer 1956, 1964Dutta 1968, Dutta andWilman 1971 for Ag; Boichot 1974Boichot , 1978a for PbS, PbTe). This (6, i) relation serves to define the functionf($), wheref($)d$ is the relative t Present address: 87 Cambridge Rd, London SW20 OPU.…”

Sputter Deposited Metal Layers Embedded in Composites—From Fundamentals to Applications

“…Similar to our measurement presented in Figure 6, the outgassing products were identified by mass spectrometry measurements as mainly water vapor and small amounts of nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide. H 2 O is the main source of the H 2 and OH species present in the chamber [26][27][28]. The presence of these species during deposition will effectively influence the microstructure and film properties [28][29][30][31][32][33].…”

“…H 2 O is the main source of the H 2 and OH species present in the chamber [26][27][28]. The presence of these species during deposition will effectively influence the microstructure and film properties [28][29][30][31][32][33]. The role of impurities on the nucleation density during reactive magnetron sputtering was previously investigated by our team [34].…”