Surface Morphology and Structural Properties of Silver Thin Films Prepared on Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Substrate by Screen Printing Technique

Abstract

In this work, different thicknesses of silver (Ag) thin films were prepared on flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic substrates by screen printing technology. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used to characterize morphology and surface roughness of the Ag thin films. Crystallinity and crystallites sizes of the films were verified on High resolution X-ray diffraction (HR-XRD) system. From the AFM, rough surfaces were revealed with root mean square surface roughness (RMS) ranging from 20 to 40 nm for different thicknesses of the films and were found to be strongly dependent on the film thickness. The HR-XRD spectra showed different crystalline orientations of Ag thin films (with various thicknesses) produced by the screen printing technique. All the experimental findings were subsequently discussed.