MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF DISCONTINUOUS AND SEMICONTINUOUS METAL-FILMS

In the paper, the morphology of discontinuous metal films with irregul ar islands and of semicontinuous metal films is studied by the combina tion of computer experiment and analysis of film micrographs. In order to determine the physical interpretation of derived morphological cha racteristics, four models in two modifications for both discontinuous and semicontinuous metal films were prepared. These models were analys ed by the standard morphological algorithms for description of spatial distribution of objects and the physical meaning of these characteris tics for irregular objects was discussed. It was found that although t he sensitivity of methods used decreases with increasing film thicknes s, the covariance method is the most promising of them. (C) 1998 Elsev ier Science S.A.