ADXPS STUDY OF THE CHEMICAL-STRUCTURE OF POLYAMIC ACID NI AND POLYIMIDE/NI INTERFACES/

Angular-dependent X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (ADXPS) was applied to study ultra-thin films of polyamic acid (BTDA-ODA type) prepared b y the spin-coating technique. The ADXPS data are used to test the perf ormances of a profile reconstruction method to study the characterizin g parameters of polymer/metal interfaces. In particular, the process o f interface formation and the effects of the in-situ imidization on th e structure of the polymer films were studied for naturally passivated and thermally oxidized Ni substrates. The application of the proposed profile reconstruction method shows that it is possible to obtain a r eliable evaluation of thickness and homogeneity of the polymeric overl ayers. Furthermore, the method provides a good tool to estimate the at omic-scale roughness of the polymer/metal interfaces.