Hi, everyone. How can I to reduce the cracks when a Au film(the thickness is 100 nm and the width is 150 um ）is deposited on PDMS with sputter coating. In addition， how to improve the conducity of sputtered Au film. Thanks a lot
100 nm Au = 50 atoms height, with a width of 150 um , the thickenss is too small.
Deposite at least 2 um of Au, if you want good thin films you have to maintain the sputtering at least 2 hours. With 2 hours you have less than 1 um deposited
Use thermal deposition by evaporation not sputtering for Au.
One strategy that improves adhesion and reduces cracking is deposition by heating the substrate. Above 100 ºC, the deposition usually improves considerably and the appearance of cracks is reduced.
Dear Liu Peng,
The PDMS is soft and flexible. To avoid the cracks of Au films on the PDMS, you may need to have an adhension layer between Au and PDMS such as organic self monolayers. Alternatively you could try 5nm Cr or Ti thin films.
You are right the gold films can't be thicker than 300nm. Ideally 200nm is enough for a good conductivity of Au films.
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