Elastic Properties of Nano–Thin Films by Use of Atomic Force Acoustic Microscopy

Abstract

AbstractAtomic force acoustic microscopy (AFAM) is a non-destructive method able to determine the indentation modulus of a sample with high lateral and depth resolution. We used the AFAM technique to measure the indentation modulus of film-substrate systems Msam and then to extract the value of the indentation modulus of the film Mf. The investigated samples were films of silicon oxide thermally grown on silicon single crystal substrates by use of dry and wet oxidation methods. The thickness of the samples ranged from 7 nm to 28 nm as measured by ellipsometry. Our results clearly show that the values of Msam obtained for the film-substrate systems depended on the applied static load and the film thickness. The observed dependency was used to evaluate the indentation modulus of the film. The values obtained for Mf ranged from 77 GPa to 95 GPa and were in good agreement with values reported in the literature.