Residual stress evolution during long-term and cyclic aging and annealing of gold films deposited by electron beam evaporation

AFM characterization of the shape of surface structures with localization factor

“…On these phase images the borders of the grains can clearly be seen, which boundaries start to disappear as the merging of the grains and elimination of the voids begin. This initial behavior of the grains is in good agreement with the work of Zhou et al (2015), who recently reported similar changes in the grain structure (relaxation, void elimination at grain boundaries) after a long term annealing at lower temperature (24 h at 60 o C). The results are also in good correspondence with the recent work of Arghir et al (2016) who also reported a small increase in Sq (around 9 %, from 2.2 nm to 2.4 nm) after annealing a gold thin film for 7 h at 180 o C. The changes in the grain shape, the merging of the grains, and some scattered high peaks are also well observable in their presented topography images.…”

Effect of Pulsed Laser Irradiation on Microstructure and Evolution of Residual Stress for Gold Film

“…Figure 3 shows the scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) cross-sectional microstructure of the gold film. For the as-deposited gold film, as described in previous studies, [4] an irregular columnar structure, an abundance of twin crystals in the grains and voids between grains (indicated by arrows 1-4) can be seen (Figure 3a). Figure 3b-f show the microstructure of the gold films irradiated by pulsed laser with different energy densities.…”

“…[8] To examine the possible diffusion of the chromium, energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX) line analyses across the gold film thickness was performed with the STEM, the results are shown in Figure 4. Line scan was utilized and both analyses across grain interior and along grain [4] 2015, Elsevier. b) 0.314 J cm À2 .…”

“…Stress in gold film is prone to drift both under thermal influence and with time during natural placement. [4] In case of relatively small thickness, drift of the residual stress can cause improper film/substrate system deflection or distortion and result in accuracy degradation or fault of the devices. [4][5][6][7] Hence, the stress and its stability are of great importance to the long-term performance and reliability of devices that contain gold film.…”

Plasmonic Imaging of Oxidation and Reduction of Single Gold Nanoparticles and Their Surface Structural Dynamics

“…The locations of the AuNPs can be identified by their distinct parabolic tails and their characteristic EC activities associated with the surface facets. The Au substrate is a thin film deposited by electron beam evaporation, which is reported to be dominated with the (111) facet . On the other hand, the AuNCs, AuNRs, and AuNWs are dominated with (100) and/or (110) facets. ,,, The EC “fingerprints” for these different facets include a couple of anodic peaks originating from the first electron transfer during gold surface oxidation.…”