EPITAXIAL AND ISLAND GROWTH OF AG SI(001) BY RF MAGNETRON SPUTTERING/

In this study, we examined the microstructure of Ag films grown on Si( 001) substrates by radio frequency (rf) magnetron sputtering in a sync hrotron x-ray scattering experiment. At a low rf power of 0.22 W/cm(2) , the film was initially nucleated in the form of fine-grained epitaxi al film with the crystalline axes parallel to the substrate crystallin e axes. As the growth proceeded further, it changed to nonepitaxial th ree dimensional island growth. The Ag islands were not epitaxial, but grew preferentially along the [111] direction. At a higher rf power of 0.44 W/cm(2), the Ag film developed a nonepitaxial island growth from the early stage. Annealing the films at 500 degrees C increased the i sland size and enhanced the crystalline quality. The thin epitaxial fi lm grown at the low rf power was recrystallized into islands during th e annealing. This study suggests that it is feasible to grow heteroepi taxial Ag films on silicon substrates even by a sputtering process whe n the energy of the sputtered particles is minimized. (C) 1997 America n Institute of Physics.