Morphological Characteristics of Au Films Deposited on Ti: A Combined SEM-AFM Study

Abstract

Deposited Au films and coatings are, nowadays, routinely used as active or passive elements in several innovative electronic, optoelectronic, sensing, and energy devices. In these devices, the physical properties of the Au films are strongly determined by the films nanoscale structure. In addition, in these devices, often, a layer of Ti is employed to promote adhesion and, so, influencing the nanoscale structure of the deposited Au film. In this work, we present experimental analysis on the nanoscale cross-section and surface morphology of Au films deposited on Ti. In particular, we sputter-deposited thick (>100 nm thickness) Au films on Ti foils and we used Scanning Electron Microscopy to analyze the films cross-sectional and surface morphology as a function of the Au film thickness and deposition angle. In addition, we analyzed the Au films surface morphology by Atomic Force Microscopy which allowed quantifying the films surface roughness versus the film thickness and deposition angle. The results establish a relation between the Au films cross-sectional and surface morphologies and surface roughness to the film thickness and deposition angle. These results allow setting a general working framework to obtain Au films on Ti with specific morphological and topographic properties for desired applications in which the Ti adhesion layer is needed for Au.

Structure, Characteristics and Corrosion Behaviour of Gold Nanocoating Thin Film for Biomedical Applications

“…These elongated grains, spherical nanoparticles, have plan diameters mentioned above, with the maximum magnification indicating a range of 10.00kx. The SEM topography results are conforming with the researcher Ruffino et al 19 .…”

“…Furthermore, as shown in the cyclic polarization results, the hysteresis loop of nanocoated samples with 100nm of the gold thin film decreases compared to coated with 50 nm gold thin film and uncoated alloy. Higher resistance to corrosive attack and obtained a greater capacity of re-passivation of Au nanocoating thin film is due to the stability , homogeneity, and lower roughness 19 of Au thin film, furthermore to no defects or micro cracks. Coatings create a barrier for surface protection, with the metal surface becoming denser and more protective as the process progresses as confirmed by researchers 21 .…”

Optical biosensing of mycolic acid biomarker for TB diagnosis

“…It is evident that the distribution is uniform, closely, and densely packed. They are columnar structures that resembled round-shaped structures, and this is in agreement with what has been documented in the literature [22] . The nano-interspaces between the columnar structures support what has been detected in other studies, and this is an indication that the film is robust and can be used to develop biosensing platforms [23] .…”

Indium-Based Micro-Bump Array Fabrication Technology with Added Pre-Reflow Wet Etching and Annealing

“…A thin (few nanometers) Ti layer was deposited on Au to mitigate this issue and improve the adhesion of the dielectric film. Besides titanium, chromium can also be used for this purpose [ 26 ]. We decided to use the former due to its compatibility with antimonide-based IR detector technology developed at our institute [ 27 , 28 ].…”