Melting Behavior in Granular Metal Thin Films

Abstract

ABSTRACTGranular metal films consisting of small Sn, Bi, and Pb particles, typically from less than 100 Å to several 1000 Å in size and embedded in a SiO2 matrix, have been fabricated over a range of metal compositions by RF sputter deposition. Two different film geometries have been prepared, homogeneous films and multilayer films consisting of alternating layers of granular metal and SiO2. These films have been characterized by x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy and their melting behavior studied by differential scanning calorimetry. As the concentration of the metal component is decreased, the average particle size decreases and the particle size distribution becomes more narrow. When the solid-liquid transition is studied, the melting temperature has been found to be increasingly depressed as the particle size is reduced. In the smallest particles the relative reduction in the melting temperature is greater than 10 percent. No strong evidence for melting point enhancements, due to pressureeffects arising from the different thermal expansions of the metal particles and the SiO2 matrix, has been observed in either the homogeneous or multilayer films.