| AVS 55th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Thin Film | Thursday Sessions |
| Session TF-ThP |
| Session: | Aspects of Thin Films |
| Presenter: | A. Gonzalez-Gonzalez, Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (CSIC), Spain |
| Authors: | A. Gonzalez-Gonzalez, Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (CSIC), Spain J.L. Sacedon, Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (CSIC), Spain E. Rodriguez-Cañas, Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (CSIC), Spain J.A. Aznarez, Instituto de Fisica Aplicada (CSIC), Spain E. Vasco, Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (CSIC), Spain |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
In the present work two statistical methods of growth front analysis, the minimalist analysis and the mathematical molding, are compared. The minimalist method, previously developed,1,2 is able to give a statically complete description of the surface, based in a linear limited sampling. It includes the capability to interpret the distribution of slopes at the border of surface protrusions. At difference the mathematical molding method allows to extend the sampling to all the image points and its handling is automatic. Applications of both methods on growth fronts of Au(111) thin films are presented. Thin Au films were thermally evaporated on Au epitaxied /mica substrates at 373K substrate temperature, resulting in a out of equilibrium mound growth (up to 60nm thick) on extended single crystalline plates. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) measurements were carried out to investigate the morphology of the films using high aspect ratio tips (nominal tip radius of 2 nm) to achieve high lateral resolution (estimated to be less than 3 nm). The molding algorithm is based on adaptive numerical interpolations of the AFM-measured surfaces by polynomial methods, the extended sampling results are coherent and can be interpreted with the set of parameters and shapes used in the minimalist method, allowing a better statistical determination. Using this method, we have investigated the evolution of the surface slopes with the film thickness and we were able to correlate slope distribution with terrace selected slope models and crystalline facets shaping the surface features.
1 E.Rodríguez-Cañas,E.Vasco, and J.L.Sacedón,Appl.Phys.Lett. 90,013112 (2007).
2J.L.Sacedón,E.Rodríguez-Cañas,C.Munuera,A.I.Oliva and J.A. Aznárez, Phys.Rev.B 72,195413 (2005).