Optimization of electrical treatment strategy for surface roughness reduction in conducting thin films

Du, Lin; Maroudas, Dimitrios

doi:10.1063/1.5047405

Title: Optimization of electrical treatment strategy for surface roughness reduction in conducting thin films

Journal Article · 25 September 2018 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5047405 · OSTI ID:1540252

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Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA (United States)

The surface roughness of deposited conducting thin films is responsible for various materials reliability problems in nanoelectronics and nanofabrication technologies. In this work, we report a modeling and simulation study that aims at optimizing the electrical surface treatment of deposited conducting thin films as a physical processing strategy for their surface roughness reduction. Our research is based on a continuum model of film surface morphological evolution that accounts for the residual stress in the deposited conducting thin film, the film’s wetting of the substrate layer that it is deposited on, film texture and surface diffusional anisotropy, and surface electromigration. Through systematic linear stability analysis and dynamical simulation protocols, we examine in detail the effects of film surface crystallographic orientation and applied electric field direction toward minimizing the electric field strength required for film surface smoothening. We believe that the critical electric field strength requirement for surface roughness reduction on {110}, {100}, and {111} surfaces of face-centered cubic crystalline conducting thin films exhibits a very strong dependence on the applied electric field direction, expressed as the electric field misalignment with respect to the principal residual stress directions in the film and the fast surface diffusion directions. Due to these findings, we optimize the electrical treatment strategy for surface roughness reduction of conducting thin films with respect to all relevant processing and material parameters.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division

Grant/Contract Number:: FG02-07ER46407

OSTI ID:: 1540252

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1473736

Journal Information:: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 124, Issue 12; ISSN 0021-8979

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 8 works

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