Improvement of the morphological stability of Ag film on (001)Si with a thin interposing Au layer

Abstract

The morphological stability of ultrahigh vacuum deposited Ag film on (001)Si has been drastically improved by the deposition of 1 to 5 nm thick interposing Au layers. In Ag/(001)Si samples, Ag islands were found to form after annealing at 200 °C for 1 h. In contrast, continuous and uniform metal layer persisted after annealing at 500 °C for 1 h in samples with a thin intermediate Au layer. The significantly improved morphological stability is attributed to the strong intermixing between Au and Ag atoms at the metal/Si interface. The intermixing lowers the interface energy between metal layer and (001)Si.