SURFACE-ROUGHNESS SCALING OF PLASMA POLYMER-FILMS

Atomic force microscopy data reveal self-affine scaling of plasma poly mer films. The rms surface roughness sigma increases with film thickne ss tau as sigma(f < xi-1) is similar to tau(beta), and with measuremen t length L as sigma(f > L-1 > xi-1) is similar to L(alpha), where xi i s the surface roughness correlation length. At the deposition rate R = 2 mum/h, the scaling exponents alpha and beta are 0.9 and 0.7, both i ncreasing to 1 at R = 1 mum/h. A competition between surface relaxatio n and deposition rate determine sigma and xi, which increase rapidly w ith R or inverse temperature.