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- Title
Ultra-smooth metal surfaces generated by pressure-induced surface deformation of thin metal films.
- Authors
Logeeswaran, V. J.; Chan, M.-L.; Bayam, Y.; Saif Islam, M.; Horsley, D. A.; Li, X.; Wu, W.; Wang, S. Y.; Williams, R. S.
- Abstract
We present a mechanical pressing technique for generating ultra-smooth surfaces on thin metal films by flattening the bumps, asperities, rough grains and spikes of a freshly vacuum deposited metal film. The method was implemented by varying the applied pressure from 100 MPa to 600 MPa on an e-beam evaporated silver film of thickness 1000 Å deposited on double-polished (100)-oriented silicon surfaces, resulting in a varying degree of film smoothness. The surface morphology of the thin film was studied using atomic force microscopy. Notably, at a pressure of ∼600 MPa an initial silver surface with 13-nm RMS roughness was plastically deformed and transformed to an ultra-flat plane with better than 0.1 nm RMS. Our demonstration with the e-beam evaporated silver thin film exhibits the potential for applications in decreasing the scattering-induced losses in optical metamaterials, plasmonic nanodevices and electrical shorts in molecular-scale electronic devices.
- Subjects
METALLIC surfaces; METALLOGRAPHY; THIN films; DEFORMATIONS (Mechanics); SOLID state electronics; ATOMIC force microscopy; MATERIALS science
- Publication
Applied Physics A: Materials Science & Processing, 2007, Vol 87, Issue 2, p187
- ISSN
0947-8396
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s00339-006-3836-1