| AVS 60th International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Thin Film | Thursday Sessions |
| Session TF-ThP |
| Session: | Thin Films Poster Session |
| Presenter: | M. Kawamura, Kitami Institute of Technology, Japan |
| Authors: | M. Kawamura, Kitami Institute of Technology, Japan T. Hirose, Kitami Institute of Technology, Japan Y. Abe, Kitami Institute of Technology, Japan KH. Kim, Kitami Institute of Technology, Japan |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Ag thin films with excellent physical properties have been used as electrode, optical reflector, and so on. It is necessary to prevent degradation of the Ag films in air or humid atmosphere. We pay attention to sub-nanometer thick layer of 3-mercapto propyltrimethoxysilane (MPTMS), as a protective coating. If the MPTMS monolayer is formed at the surface of Ag thin films, a strong bond between them may bring an effective passivation of the Ag films.
Ag thin films (10nm) were deposited on clean glass substrates by vacuum evaporation. Then monolayer of MPTMS was formed over the Ag thin films by solution method. The samples were kept in a constant temperature and humidity chamber (40 degree celsius and 80 RH%) for a week. The electrical resistance, surface morphology, optical transmittance were measured before and after the test. Ag film without the monolayer was also examined for comparison.
The surface roughness (rms) of the Ag film modified with the monolayer was increased from 2.1 nm to 3.8 nm after the test. However, that of Ag film without the monolayer drastically increased from 3.7 nm to 12.4 nm. As a result, passivation effect of the MPTMS monolayer for Ag films was confirmed. By the measurement of electrical resistivity, it was found that increase in the resistivity after the test was very much suppressed in the Ag film with MPTMS monolayer. In addition, optical transmittance measurement showed that spectrum of Ag films with the monolayer did not change after the test. These results accord with film morphology change. Consequently, we found modification of Ag films with MPTMS monolayer can improve durability of the Ag films.