What are the some ways of smoothening a gold film deposited using Sputtering?
Hi Johneph,
1. Au has the tendency to follow the structure of the substrate so first thing that you should do is make shure the substrate is smooth.
2. When sputtering you can best choose a combination of sputtering pressure and substrate temperature to get into the T-zone layer, see included picture of Thornton model. This will give the smoothest surface. T/Tm is the actual deposition temperature in relation to melting point of gold.
regards,
Peter
I agree with Peter, the best way is to work on the deposition parameters that give you better results.
Unfortunately after the material is deposited on most substrates (at least for very thin films) annealing will tend cause the gold to form islands or meandering patterns and actually add more structure. For thicker gold films it may be a little different, but for semiconductor device contacts when annealing to improve the electrical characteristics you typically see a textured surface under the microscope.
I am not aware of any mechanical ways to smooth the films after deposition, but that might be interesting from a science point of view.
Dear Johneph, see an older paper - it is always a compromise between crystallite size (larger for larger temperatures and a post deposition annealing process) and roughness (lower roughness without annealing, but also pretty small crystallites only). See https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230357100_Structural_and_electrical_properties_of_thin_dc_magnetron-sputtered_gold_films_deposited_on_float_glass
Hope this helps, Dirk
Article Structural and electrical properties of thin d.c. magnetron‐...
Dear Dr. Johneph Sukham
have a nice time and good day
I think that there are no ways of smoothing the deposited films, whether you use Sputtering technique or any other technique. But on the other side you must take into consideration the precautions that give you good quality films and have smooth surface. I didn't prepare samples by the sputtering technique, but I think that the obtained films by this way are always suffering from the roughness nature.
Good luck
I personally have the feeling that a cautious cleaning of the substrates is extremely important in order to get high quality films with smooth surfaces. If you e.g. have remaining dust particles on the substrate, those will always produce pin holes, because the substrate is shaded. Also adsorbates etc may be very critical - so the cleaning of the substrates is an important part of the story!
Hi Johneph,
I concur with Dirk Luetzenkrichen-Hecht. Substrate cleaning is essential to prevent bubbles, pin holes and particle inclusions. Depending on the kind of material and sputter conditions you are using you will have to sputter up to 50-100 nm of material to get the a layer which is optically closed (you can easily check this by sputtering on glass and see if you can look through it with a lightsource on the other side).
regards,
Peter
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