Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A, Vol.17, No.4, 1799-1804, 1999
Characterization of thin metal films processed at different temperatures
Thin metal of Au, Ag, and Al films were deposited onto room temperature (RT) and low temperature (LT = 77 K) substrates then subjected to five types of measurement: resistivity vs film thickness, resistivity vs substrate temperature, atomic force microscopy (AFM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and TEM electron diffraction. In all three cases, the LT films were continuous at lower thicknesses than the RT films during resistivity vs film thickness measurements. During resistivity vs substrate temperature testing of very thin films (< 100 Angstrom), all three LT films exhibited resistivities that were orders of magnitude lower than RT films of the same thickness. In general, TEM and AFM scans of LT films exhibited better substrate coverage at lower thicknesses, and RT films showed larger grain size. Resistivity vs film thickness measurements and TEM scans were done on Pd and Ni. LT Pd films exhibited larger resistivities than the RT films at all measured thicknesses. Ni RT film started with higher resistivity and became more conductive than the LT film at larger thicknesses.