Structure-film thickness relationship study of sputtered NiO/Ni bilayers using depth profiling and atomic force microscopy techniques

B Abbey, JD Lipp, ZH Barber, Trevor Rayment

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

NiO/Ni thin film bilayers have been grown on Si (100) substrates using low temperature dc reactive magnetron sputtering. The samples were grown under identical process conditions but with different amounts of NiO deposited in order to determine film quality as a function of thickness. In order to investigate the structural properties of the NiO overlayers a synchrotron detector has been developed to make energy-resolved electron yield x-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements at ambient pressure. From these studies we have been able to construct a complete depth profile of the NiO/Ni bilayers and, by modeling of the electron multiplication/propagation processes within the films, extract quantitative information about them. In combination with atomic force microscopy measurements we have determined that there exists a clear variation in the structural and morphological properties of the NiO thin films as a function of thickness. The densest overlayers with the most conformal surface are observed for film thicknesses <20 nm and > 100 nm. We rationalize these results in terms of the underlying morphology of the Ni film and the effects of misfit strain between the layers. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)124914
Number of pages1
JournalJournal of Applied Physics
Volume99
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2006

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