Morphology of gold films thinned by argon ion sputter etching
- Department of Physics, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand (NZ)
- Department of Microbiology, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin (New Zealand)
Evaporated gold films and gold films etched by argon ion bombardment to the same thickness are known to exhibit different optical and electrical properties. Transmission electron microscope observations presented in this paper confirm that these differences are caused by different growth/etch film morphologies. The density of islands in a globular film remains nearly constant during etching, in contrast to a steady decrease during deposition. Similarly, the particle density in a nested island film initially remains constant during etching but then increases slightly as some of the islands break up. Films that are initially fully coalesced remain continuous during etching until, when they are very thin, an array of holes of irregular shape and increasing size appears and finally they break up into islands of irregular shape.
- OSTI ID:
- 6938110
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Physics; (USA), Vol. 67:11; ISSN 0021-8979
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
GOLD
ETCHING
ARGON IONS
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
FILMS
ION COLLISIONS
MORPHOLOGY
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
VAPOR DEPOSITED COATINGS
CHARGED PARTICLES
COATINGS
COLLISIONS
ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
ELEMENTS
IONS
METALS
MICROSCOPY
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
SURFACE FINISHING
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
656003* - Condensed Matter Physics- Interactions between Beams & Condensed Matter- (1987-)