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

Abstract

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, wemore » optimize the electrical treatment strategy for surface roughness reduction of conducting thin films with respect to all relevant processing and material parameters.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division
OSTI Identifier:
1540252
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1473736
Grant/Contract Number:  
FG02-07ER46407
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Journal of Applied Physics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 124; Journal Issue: 12; Journal ID: ISSN 0021-8979
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
42 ENGINEERING

Citation Formats

Du, Lin, and Maroudas, Dimitrios. Optimization of electrical treatment strategy for surface roughness reduction in conducting thin films. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1063/1.5047405.
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Du, Lin, & Maroudas, Dimitrios. Optimization of electrical treatment strategy for surface roughness reduction in conducting thin films. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5047405
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Du, Lin, and Maroudas, Dimitrios. Tue . "Optimization of electrical treatment strategy for surface roughness reduction in conducting thin films". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5047405. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1540252.
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@article{osti_1540252,
title = {Optimization of electrical treatment strategy for surface roughness reduction in conducting thin films},
author = {Du, Lin and Maroudas, Dimitrios},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.1063/1.5047405},
journal = {Journal of Applied Physics},
number = 12,
volume = 124,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Sep 25 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Tue Sep 25 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}
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Journal Article:
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Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5047405
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Cited by: 6 works
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Figures / Tables:

FIG. 1 FIG. 1: Schematic representation of a conducting thin film deposited on a substrate layer and subjected to an equibiaxial compressive stress of magnitude $σ$0 and an external electric field E0. Both the thickness of the film, $h$0, and its surface roughness have been amplified for clarity.
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