Surface roughness minimum: Ag thin layer deposited on a glass

• Main Authors: Petrović R., Štrbac S., Bundaleski N., Rakočević Z.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Serbian Chemical Society 2001-01-01
• Series: Journal of the Serbian Chemical Society
• Subjects: surface roughness; silver; glass
• Online Access: http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0352-5139/2001/0352-51390107483P.pdf

In this paper the results of an examination of the surface roughness and morphology dependence of silver thin films up to 100 nm thick deposited on a microscope glass on the deposition rate and on the deposition time are presented. It was found that, for a constant deposition rate, the surface roughness exhibits minimum at a certain layer thickness. This coincides with the turning point when the influence of the substrate surface on the deposition process becomes negligible, i.e., to the change in the nature of the system substrate/deposit from Ag/glass to Ag/Ag. For a constant layer thickness, sthe surface roughness minimum, achieved at a certain deposition rate, coincides to the turning point when the average free path for vertical adatom mobility becomes zero.