engleski

Structural study of nanocrystalline nickel thin films

Nickel thin films (400 nm) were deposited by magnetron sputtering onto fused silica substrates. The effects of argon pressure and substrate temperature (from room temperature to 973 K) upon the film structure were investigated. The film structure was studied using grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. It was found that the prepared nanocrystalline Ni films contain two kinds of inhomogeneities observable by GISAXS, namely isotropic and platelet-like. Up to about 373 K the isotropic or spherical "particles" prevail, while above that temperature the platelet-like "particles" predominate. These inhomogeneities are ascribed to intergranular matter or grain boundaries, since the grain size (as determined from the XRD patterns) was found to increase from 7 nm in samples deposited at room temperature to about 90 nm in samples deposited at 423 K or higher temperature.

nanocrystalline nickel ; thin films ; surface topography ; atomic force microscopy

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