Current Search: X-Ray reflectivity (x)
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- Title
- CLASSICAL SIZE EFFECT IN CU THIN FILMS: IMPACT OF SURFACE AND GRAIN BOUNDARY SCATTERING ON RESISTIVITY.
- Creator
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Sun, Tik, Coffey, Kevin, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Surface and grain boundary electron scattering contribute significantly to resistivity as the dimensions of polycrystalline metallic conductors are reduced to, and below, the electron mean free path. A quantitative measurement of the relative contributions of surface and grain boundary scattering to resistivity is very challenging, requiring not only the preparation of suitably small conductors having independent variation of the two relevant length scales, namely, the sample critical...
Show moreSurface and grain boundary electron scattering contribute significantly to resistivity as the dimensions of polycrystalline metallic conductors are reduced to, and below, the electron mean free path. A quantitative measurement of the relative contributions of surface and grain boundary scattering to resistivity is very challenging, requiring not only the preparation of suitably small conductors having independent variation of the two relevant length scales, namely, the sample critical dimension and the grain size, but also independent experimental quantification of these two length scales. In most work to date the sample grain size has been either assumed equal to conductor dimension or measured for only a small number of grains. Thus, the quantification of the classical size effect still suffers from an uncertainty in the relative contributions of surface and grain boundary scattering. In this work, a quantitative analysis of both surface and grain boundary scattering in Cu thin films with independent variation of film thickness (27 nm to 158 nm) and grain size (35 nm to 425 nm) in samples prepared by sub-ambient temperature film deposition followed by annealing is reported. Film resistivities of carefully characterized samples were measured at both room temperature and at 4.2 K and were compared with several scattering models that include the effects of surface and grain boundary scattering. Grain boundary scattering is found to provide the strongest contribution to the resistivity increase. However, a weaker, but significant, role is also observed for surface scattering. Several of the published models for grain boundary and surface scattering are explored and the Matthiessen's rule combination of the Mayadas and Shatzkes' model of grain boundary scattering and Fuchs and Sondheimer's model of surface scattering resistivity contributions is found to be most appropriate. It is found that the experimental data are best described by a grain boundary reflection coefficient of 0.43 and a surface specularity coefficient of 0.52. This analysis finds a significantly lower contribution from surface scattering than has been reported in previous works, which is in part due to the careful quantitative microstructural characterization of samples performed. The data does suggest that there is a roughness dependence to the surface scattering, but this was not conclusively demonstrated. Voids and impurities were found to have negligible impact on the measured resistivities of the carefully prepared films.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2009
- Identifier
- CFE0002959, ucf:47949
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002959
- Title
- X-ray Scattering Investigations of Metallic Thin Films.
- Creator
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Warren, Andrew, Coffey, Kevin, Sohn, Yongho, Suryanarayana, Challapalli, Heinrich, Helge, Barmak, Katayun, Toney, Michael, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Nanometric thin films are used widely throughout various industries and for various applications. Metallic thin films, specifically, are relied upon extensively in the microelectronics industry, among others. For example, alloy thin films are being investigated for CMOS applications, tungsten films find uses as contacts and diffusion barriers, and copper is used often as interconnect material. Appropriate metrology methods must therefore be used to characterize the physical properties of...
Show moreNanometric thin films are used widely throughout various industries and for various applications. Metallic thin films, specifically, are relied upon extensively in the microelectronics industry, among others. For example, alloy thin films are being investigated for CMOS applications, tungsten films find uses as contacts and diffusion barriers, and copper is used often as interconnect material. Appropriate metrology methods must therefore be used to characterize the physical properties of these films. X-ray scattering experiments are well suited for the investigation of nano-scaled systems, and are the focus of this doctoral dissertation. Emphasis is placed on (1) phase identification of polycrystalline thin films, (2) the evaluation of the grain size and microstrain of metallic thin films by line profile analysis, and (3) the study of morphological evolution in solid/solid interfaces.To illustrate the continued relevance of x-ray diffraction for phase identification of simple binary alloy systems, Pt-Ru thin films, spanning the compositional range from pure Pt to pure Ru were investigated. In these experiments, a meta-stable extension of the HCP phase is observed in which the steepest change in the electronic work function coincides with a rapid change in the c/a ratio of the HCP phase.For grain size and microstrain analysis, established line profile methods are discussed in terms of Cu and W thin film analysis. Grain sizes obtained by x-ray diffraction are compared to transmission electron microscopy based analyses. Significant discrepancies between x-ray and electron microscopy are attributed to sub-grain misorientations arising from dislocation core spreading at the film/substrate interface. A novel "residual" full width half max parameter is introduced for examining the contribution of strain to x-ray peak broadening. The residual width is subsequently used to propose an empirical method of line profile analysis for thin films on substrates.X-ray reflectivity was used to study the evolution of interface roughness with annealing for a series of Cu thin films that were encapsulated in both SiO2 and Ta/SiO2. While all samples follow similar growth dynamics, notable differences in the roughness evolution with high temperature ex-situ annealing were observed. The annealing resulted in a smoothing of only one interface for the SiO2 encapsulated films, while neither interface of the Ta/SiO2 encapsulated films evolved significantly. The fact that only the upper Cu/SiO2 interface evolves is attributed to mechanical pinning of the lower interface to the rigid substrate. The lack of evolution of the Cu/Ta/SiO2 interface is consistent with the lower diffusivity expected of Cu in a Cu/Ta interface as compared to that in a Cu/SiO2 interface. The smoothing of the upper Cu/SiO2 interface qualitatively follows that expected for capillarity driven surface diffusion but with notable quantitative deviation.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- Identifier
- CFE0004770, ucf:49784
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004770