Bulut Yusuf, Sochor Benedikt, Reck Kristian A, Schummer Bernhard, Meinhardt Alexander, Drewes Jonas, Liang Suzhe, Guan Tianfu, Jeromin Arno, Stierle Andreas, Keller Thomas F, Strunskus Thomas, Faupel Franz, Müller-Buschbaum Peter, Roth Stephan V
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestr. 85, Hamburg 22607, Germany.
Department of Physics, Chair for Functional Materials, Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Natural Sciences, James-Franck-Str. 1, Garching 85748, Germany.
Langmuir. 2024 Oct 29;40(43):22591-22601. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c02344. Epub 2024 Oct 14.
Fabricating thin metal layers and particularly observing their formation process in situ is of fundamental interest to tailor the quality of such a layer on polymers for organic electronics. In particular, the process of high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) for establishing thin metal layers has sparsely been explored in situ. Hence, in this study, we investigate the growth of thin gold (Au) layers with HiPIMS and compare their growth with thin Au layers prepared by conventional direct current magnetron sputtering (dcMS). Au was chosen because it is an inert noble metal and has a high scattering length density. This allows us to track the growing nanostructures via grazing incidence scattering. In particular, Au deposition on the polymer polystyrene (PS) with the respective structural analogues poly-4-vinlypyridine (P4VP) and polystyrene sulfonic acid (PSS) is studied. Additionally, the nanostructured layers on these different polymer films are further probed by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray reflectometry (XRR), and four-point probe measurements. We report that HiPIMS leads to smaller island-to-island distances throughout the whole sputter process. Moreover, an increased cluster density and an earlier percolation threshold are achieved compared to dcMS. Additionally, in the early stage, we observe a significant increase in coverage by HiPIMS, which is favorable for the improvement of the polymer-metal interface.
制造薄金属层，特别是原位观察其形成过程，对于调整用于有机电子学的聚合物上此类层的质量具有根本意义。特别是，用于建立薄金属层的高功率脉冲磁控溅射（HiPIMS）过程在原位的研究还很少。因此，在本研究中，我们研究了用HiPIMS制备的薄金（Au）层的生长，并将其与通过传统直流磁控溅射（dcMS）制备的薄Au层的生长进行比较。选择Au是因为它是一种惰性贵金属，并且具有高散射长度密度。这使我们能够通过掠入射散射跟踪生长中的纳米结构。特别是，研究了Au在聚合物聚苯乙烯（PS）及其结构类似物聚4-乙烯基吡啶（P4VP）和聚苯乙烯磺酸（PSS）上的沉积。此外，通过场发射扫描电子显微镜（FESEM）、原子力显微镜（AFM）、X射线反射仪（XRR）和四点探针测量对这些不同聚合物薄膜上的纳米结构层进行了进一步探测。我们报告称，在整个溅射过程中，HiPIMS导致岛与岛之间的距离更小。此外，与dcMS相比，实现了更高的团簇密度和更早的渗流阈值。此外，在早期阶段，我们观察到HiPIMS的覆盖率显著增加，这有利于改善聚合物-金属界面。
