Title :
Electrical Resistivity & Thermal Stability of Smooth Silver Thin Film for Nanoscale Optoelectronic Devices
Author :
VJ, Logeeswaran ; Katzenmeyer, A. ; Islam, M. Saif ; Kobayashi, Nobuhiko P. ; Wu, W. ; Chaturvedi, P. ; Fang, Nicholas ; Wang, S.Y. ; Williams, R.Stanley
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Univ. of California at Davis, Davis, CA
Abstract :
We discuss the electrical resistivity and thermal stability of smooth thin silver (Ag) films characterized by significantly lower root mean square (RMS) surface roughness, peak-to-valley height distribution, and grain-size distribution. The smooth film was prepared by using a very thin (~1-2 nm) nucleation layer of evaporated germanium (Ge) prior to Ag evaporation. The sheet resistance of the rough silver (10 nm Ag) film is RAg-rough ~51 Omega/sq compared to the smooth silver (10 nm Ag/2 nm Ge) film with RAg.smooth ~22 Omega/sq. The smooth Ag is also shown to be thermally more stable for temperatures less than 120degC.
Keywords :
electrical resistivity; electron beam deposition; grain size; metallic thin films; metamaterials; nucleation; silver; surface roughness; thermal stability; Ag; Ge; e-beam evaporation; electrical resistivity; grain-size distribution; metamaterials; molecular electronics; nanophotonics; nanoscale optoelectronic devices; root mean square surface roughness; smooth thin film deposition; thermal stability; thin nucleation layer; Electric resistance; Nanoscale devices; Optoelectronic devices; Root mean square; Rough surfaces; Silver; Surface roughness; Thermal resistance; Thermal stability; Thin film devices;
Conference_Titel :
Nanotechnology, 2008. NANO '08. 8th IEEE Conference on
Conference_Location :
Arlington, TX
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-2103-9
Electronic_ISBN :
978-1-4244-2104-6
DOI :
10.1109/NANO.2008.34
