1. Initial growth and microstructure feature of Ag films prepared by very-high-frequency magnetron sputtering.
- Author
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Yue Zhang, Chao Ye, Xiang-Ying Wang, Pei-Fang Yang, Jia-Min Guo, and Su Zhang
- Subjects
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MICROSTRUCTURE , *METAL coating , *SILVER , *MAGNETRON sputtering , *EPITAXY , *MONTE Carlo method , *X-ray diffraction - Abstract
The initial growth and microstructure feature of Ag films formation were investigated, which were prepared by using the very-high-frequency (VHF) (60 MHz) magnetron sputtering. Because of the moderate energy and very low flux density of ions impinging on the substrate, the evolutions of initial growth for Ag films formation were well controlled by varying the sputtering power. It was found that the initial growth of Ag films followed the island (Volmer—Weber, VW) growth mode, but before the island nucleation, the adsorption of Ag nanoparticles and the formation of Ag clusters dominated the growth. Therefore, the whole initial stages of Ag films formation included the adsorption of nanoparticles, the formation of clusters, the nucleation by the nanoparticles and clusters simultaneously, the islands formation, and the coalescence of islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2017
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