SURFACE-MORPHOLOGY OF SPUTTER-DEPOSITED LOW-MELTING POINT METALLIC THIN-FILMS

This paper describes the development of surface morphology of thin InS n(90/10), In, Sn and Cr films, deposited on unheated glass substrates by d.c. magnetron sputtering, with the film thickness. The experiments show that the surface morphology of metallic films with low melting p oints T(m)[InSn(90/10) - 150-degrees-C, In - 156.6-degrees-C, Sn - 231 .8-degrees-C] and that with high melting point T(m)[Cr - 1875-degrees- C] strongly differ. InSn(90/10) and Sn films with thickness greater th an about 30 nm and also In films with even lower thickness of about 20 nm have a rough surface, milky color and matt appearance. On the cont rary, Cr films of the same thickness have a smooth and shiny surface. It is due to a large difference in normalized temperatures T/T(m) for low-T(m) films [Sn - 0.59, In - 0.70, InSn(90/10) - 0.71] and for high -T(m) films [Cr - 0.14] deposited at low temperatures close to room te mperature (RT). High values of the ratio T/T(m) > 0.5 clearly indicate that just the low melting point materials can crystallize at low temp eratures close to RT. A crystallization of low T(m) films results in r ough surface, milky color and matt appearance of these films.