Effect of underlayer on coalescence of silver islands grown byfiltered cathodic arc deposition
For low-emissivity application on window glass, coalescenceof thin film silver islands is crucial for high transmittance in thevisible andhigh reflectance in the infrared. It is well known that theenergy of ions arriving at the substrate (kinetics) as wells as the typeof underlayer (thermodynamics) affect the nucleation and growth mode.Little is known about coalescence of silver islands synthesized byenergetic condensation, e.g., by filtered cathodic vacuum arc deposition.In this work, the effect of the underlayer on nucleation and growth ofsilver films deposited by filtered cathodic vacuum arc was investigatedby transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy(AFM). The results are compared with data obtained on magnetron sputteredfilms. It was found that uncoated and titanium-oxide-coated glass requiremore silver to achieve the same low value of sheet resistance than silveron zinc-oxide-coated glass. This can be associated with the energy ofinteraction between surface and silver atoms. Silver films made bycathodic arc deposition show an earlier onset of island coalescence andformation of short links. It was found that silver islands in energeticdeposition exhibit a reduced aspect ratio compared to evaporation andsputtering. A nominal 0.1 nm niobium underlayer increases the nucleationdensity and promotes coalescence of silver islands, however, a 0.2 nmlayer did not show these features, indicating the need for furtherstudies.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE. Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency andRenewable Energy. OFfice of the Building Technologies Program; Post-doctoral fellowship program.Korean Science and EngineeringFoundation (KOSEF)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 894555
- Report Number(s):
- LBNL-51568; R&D Project: 474716
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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