X-RAY REFLECTIVITY AND SCANNING-TUNNELING-MICROSCOPY STUDY OF SURFACE-ROUGHNESS SCALING OF MOLYBDENUM FILMS

An X-ray reflectivity (XR) study of the dynamic evolution of the film surface was carried out for molybdenum (Mo) sputter-deposited onto sil icon substrates. The Mo-air interface width grows with time, and exhib its a power law behavior. The growth exponent beta is found to be 0.42 . The time-invariant self-affine behavior an the short-range scale has also been observed, and is consistent with the dynamic scaling theory . The roughness exponent alpha is found to be 0.89 +/- 0.05. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) was also used to characterize the surface a nd showed good agreement with the XR measurements.