Lynch Amy L, Murray Christopher P, Roy Evan, Downing Clive, McCloskey David
Technical University of Dublin, Grangegorman, Dublin D07 H6K8, Ireland.
School of Physics, Trinity College, Dublin D02 PN40, Ireland.
ACS Omega. 2024 Feb 15;9(8):9714-9719. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c09774. eCollection 2024 Feb 27.
As technology development drives the thickness of thin film depositions down into the nano regime, understanding and controlling the dewetting of thin films has become essential for many applications. The dewetting of ultra-thin Ag (9 nm) films with Ti (0.5 nm) adhesion and capping layers on glass substrates was investigated in this work. Various thin film stacks were created using magnetron sputtering and were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-rays, Vis/IR spectrometry, and four four-point probe resistivity measurements. Upon annealing for 5 h in air at 250 °C, the addition of a 0.5 nm thick Ti capping layer reduced the dewet area by an order of magnitude. This is reflected in film resistivity, which remained 2 orders of magnitude lower than uncapped variants. This Ti/Ag/Ti structure was then deployed in a typical low-emissivity window coating structure with additional antireflective layers of AZO, resulting in a superior performance upon annealing. These results demonstrate an easy, manufacturable process that improves the longevity of devices and products containing thin Ag films.
随着技术发展将薄膜沉积的厚度降低到纳米尺度，理解和控制薄膜的去湿对于许多应用变得至关重要。在这项工作中，研究了在玻璃基板上具有Ti（0.5 nm）粘附层和覆盖层的超薄Ag（9 nm）薄膜的去湿情况。使用磁控溅射制备了各种薄膜堆叠，并通过扫描电子显微镜/能量色散X射线、可见/红外光谱和四点探针电阻率测量进行了分析。在250°C空气中退火5小时后，添加0.5 nm厚的Ti覆盖层使去湿面积减少了一个数量级。这反映在薄膜电阻率上，其比未覆盖的变体低2个数量级。然后将这种Ti/Ag/Ti结构应用于具有额外AZO抗反射层的典型低发射率窗户涂层结构中，退火后性能优异。这些结果证明了一种简单、可制造的工艺，可提高包含薄Ag膜的器件和产品的寿命。
