I am trying to pattern 1 micron thick silver layer on glass substrate. Only electron beam evaporation is available in the facility. I tried Ag/Ti/glass but silver peels off the titanium layer. So far only Ag/Au/Ti/glass partially worked and only half of my samples were completely coated with silver. The other half turned into blackish-rainbow color. Does anyone know what is wrong in the process? Or what intermediate layer I can use?
What is the base pressure of your system? What is the deposition rate? Do you have a temperature reading of the substrate during deposition?
Ti is an excellent adhesion layer, but as Dr. Luetzenkirchen-Hecht explained, if the vacuum isn't good enough it may lose some of its adhesiveness. I was able to get decent results with base pressure 100C for a few minutes before turning the e-beam on, it could also improve the adhesion of metals.
Dear Tingting, I guess that the Ti layer thickness was too large, 5-10 nm should be sufficient. Or the vacuum conditions were too bad, so that the Ti is oxized. So the situation will be similar to the bare glass (SiO2) substrate. I can also recomment Cr as adhesion promoter. Nevertheless, evaporated silver (as well as gold) only loosely connect to the glass. Good luck, Dirk
You could also try to "unpolished" your glass window. This might help.
What is the base pressure of your system? What is the deposition rate? Do you have a temperature reading of the substrate during deposition?
Ti is an excellent adhesion layer, but as Dr. Luetzenkirchen-Hecht explained, if the vacuum isn't good enough it may lose some of its adhesiveness. I was able to get decent results with base pressure 100C for a few minutes before turning the e-beam on, it could also improve the adhesion of metals.
You could also try to deposit on a different science grade transparent (visible) susbtrates (e.g., Al2O3, SiO2, AlN, Diamond).
The oxidation of the diamond susbtrate for instance will allow you to deposit directly your silver layer.
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