Significance of Electric Fields on the Growth of Thin Metal Films

Abstract

Thin films of Au, Ag, Pt, Pd, In, Sn, Bi, and Te were vacuum vapor deposited onto air‐cleaved NaCl (001) substrates in the absence of an electric field and in the presence of dc fields (in the plane of the substrate), ranging in intensity from 10 to 10³ V/cm. The vacuum environments were varied between 10⁻⁶ and 10⁻⁹ Torr, and evaporation rates ranged from 10 to 10³ Å/sec. Substrate temperatures were varied from 25 to 350°C for a distribution of mean film thicknesses ranging from 15 to 1200 Å. No significant effects of an electric field applied in the plane of the substrate were observed upon examination and comparison of representative film samples by transmission and scanning electron microscopy.