Electrical Resistivity of Nanostructured Platinum and Gold Thin Films

Abstract

We have measured, at room temperature, the resistivity, the surface roughness and the lateral surface correlation lengths of nanostructured platinum and gold thin films. The films' thickness d, deposited by vacuum arc plasma, is in the range 1.31≤d≤11.66 nm for platinum and 1.77≤d≤10.46 nm for gold. A theoretical estimate of our experimental data has been made.

Growth, coalescence, and electrical resistivity of thin Pt films grown by dc magnetron sputtering on SiO2

“…The electrical resistance of Pt thin films has been monitored during growth by argon ion-beam sputtering (IBS) [6,7] and filtered cathodic arc [8]. The morphological and crystallographical grain sizes of Pt films grown by filtered cathodic arc have been investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD) [9].…”

Surface-Induced Electrical Resistivity of Conducting Thin Films

“…[10][11][12] As can be seen from Eq. (4), the determination of σ s (d) depends on measurements of the surface roughness ∆(d) and morphological grain sizes D(d).…”

“…This function was represented by the Fourier series, 13,14 h(ρ) = n h n cos(2πρ/λ n ), where h n and λ n are the amplitudes and wavelengths, respectively, of the surface undulations created by the granular structure of the surface. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16] In this picture, 13 the wavelengths λ are given by λ ≈ D, where D is the morphological grain size. 11,12,16 So, as shown in preceding papers, 10,11 the form factor g(d) is given by:…”

“…Our induced-surface conductivity model was applied [10][11][12] to study the resistivities of Pt and Au thin films. Since for metallic films N 1, Eq.…”

“…In real films, surfaces are rough. If only one of the surfaces is rough, for example that near z = d/2, this surface z(x, y) will be written as z(x, y) = d/2 + h(x, y), with h(x, y) d. These height fluctuations h(x, y) are responsible for a perturbative potential U (x, y) that is given by [1][2][3][4][5][10][11][12][13] …”