Interfacial roughness of sputtered multilayers: Nb/Si

Journal Article · Wed Dec 15 04:00:00 EST 1993 · Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.48.17432· OSTI ID:5741429

Fullerton, E E; Pearson, J; Sowers, C H; Bader, S D ^[1]; Wu, X Z; Sinha, S K ^[2]

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1. Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439 (United States)
2. Exxon Research and Engineering Company, Annandale, New Jersey 08801 (United States)

We have carried out studies of the interfacial roughness of a number of Nb/[ital a]-Si multilayers using cross-section transmission electron microscopy, wide-angle x-ray diffraction, and low-angle x-ray reflectivity and diffuse scattering. The multilayers studied were grown by sputtering in an Ar atmosphere at various pressures. The effect of the layer thickness and of the number of layers has also been studied. We observed a clear transition in the growth morphology when the sputtering pressure is raised above the thermalization pressure ([approx]9 mTorr) of the sputtered atoms. Both the mosaic of the Nb crystallites and the interface roughness increase dramatically when the Ar pressure exceeds 9 mTorr. The roughness of the various interfaces is strongly conformal and the samples with large roughness show a roughness that increases with deposited layer number. We discuss the quantitative extraction of these parameters from the x-ray data and the implications of these results for the physics of the deposition process.

• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH00016
• OSTI ID: 5741429
• Journal Information: Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (United States), Journal Name: Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (United States) Vol. 48:23; ISSN PRBMDO; ISSN 0163-1829
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
360602* -- Other Materials-- Structure & Phase Studies
AMORPHOUS STATE
COHERENT SCATTERING
DIFFRACTION
ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
ELEMENTS
INTERFACES
METALS
MICROSCOPY
NIOBIUM
PRESSURE DEPENDENCE
ROUGHNESS
SCATTERING
SEMIMETALS
SILICON
SPUTTERING
SURFACE PROPERTIES
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
X-RAY DIFFRACTION