Evolution of Surface Structures in Sputtered Coatings

Abstract

The evolving surface structure of sputtered tantalum and niobium coatings was characterized in terms of dynamic scaling exponents using atomic force microscopy (AFM) to map surface structures over a range of scales from 10-nm to 5-nm. New numerical techniques are introduced to systematically determine the time evolution of the spatial scaling parameters associated with the coating surface morphology. These dynamic scaling parameters define a unique universality class that is associated with the deposition process, and provides insight into the dynamics of the growth processes of thick metal films.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 2002
Accession Number
ADA405463

Entities

People

  • Mark A. Johnson
  • Paul J. Cote

Organizations

  • United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Air Platforms
  • Cyber
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Coatings
  • Dynamics
  • Engineering
  • Films
  • Grain Size
  • Image Processing
  • Information Security
  • Materials
  • Metal Films
  • Microstructure
  • Military Research
  • Personal Information Managers
  • Phase Transformations
  • Roughness
  • Security
  • Sputtering
  • Surface Roughness

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Quantum spin resonance or Electron Paramagnetic Resonance spectroscopy.
  • Thin Film Deposition Science.