Morphological evolution of Pt-films on sapphire and quartz substrates at various temperatures: An experimental and molecular dynamics study

J Wen and JB Li and J He and Y Chen and X Yan and Q Guo and QJ Zhou and LL Wei and JY Sun and HB Guo, APPLIED SURFACE SCIENCE, 588, 152937 (2022).

DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2022.152937

Metal thin films on dielectric materials have played a critical role in micro-and nano-scale device miniaturization. However, because of their thermodynamic instability, reliably predicting the evolution procedure of thin metal films has been a topic of high technological importance. Herein, by employing a combination of molecular dynamics simulations and 2D-GIWAXS, we investigated the temporal structural conversion of Pt- films on sapphire and quartz substrates at high temperatures. After annealing, the surface morphologies of the Pt-films changed, and the scatter rings sharpened, displaying structural evolution and an increase in crystallinity. During the amorphous Pt-block and Pt-film relaxation, temperature dominated the crystalline nucleation and growth mechanisms, and the substrate functioned as a template for the Pt atom arrangement. At elevated temperatures, angular grains formed in the Pt-film, and the crystallization originated near the substrate and then spread to the top layer. At moderate temperatures, the grains increased, but the initial morphologies were partially preserved, and spontaneous and substrate- promoted crystallization coincided. This work illustrated the effects of substrate materials and annealing temperatures on the temporal evolution of Pt films and provided a design guide for the precise determination and control of the fabrication and application of the devices.

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