CLASSIFICATION OF GROWTH-BEHAVIOR FOR COPPER ON VARIOUS SUBSTRATES WITH IN-SITU SCANNING PROBE MICROSCOPY

In-situ scanning probe microscopy has been used to directly examine th e deposition of copper on gold, polypyrrole and gold substrates which have been precovered with a multilayer copper film. The growth of the copper deposits, from electrolytes with and without additives, have be en classified for these different substrates in accordance with Bauer [1] as either: (A) the Stranski-Krastanov mechanism involving the depo sition of one or more layers followed by the formation of three-dimens ional islands; (B) Frank-van der Merwe layer-by-layer growth of either individual monolayers (B-1); or multilayer films (B-2); or (C) the Vo lmer-Weber mechanism involving the formation of bulk islands directly on-top of the substrate. We show that the growth behaviour can be rati onalised in terms of simple thermodynamic models which take into accou nt, the strength of the deposit-substrate interaction and the crystall ographic misfit between the deposit and the underlying substrate surfa ce.