Structure in Textured Gold Films

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The structural properties of gold films vacuum-deposited on neutral substrates have been studied over a deposition temperature range of from 35° to 750°C by means of both reflection electron diffraction (RED) and x-ray diffraction. For deposition temperatures between about 350° and 500°C, extra reflections are observed in RED and are indexed as belonging to an hcp phase; these lines have previously been reported for beaten gold foils and single-crystal gold films. In addition, we have observed a weak extra reflection which we have tentatively identified as the forbidden (110). In no case were these extra lines observable by x-ray diffraction. In the case of cold deposited-annealed films, significant Bragg line shift is observed in the x-ray data; these shifts are attributed to the formation of large vacancy complexes which can only be annealed out by heating to the melting point. An argument is presented, from a comparison of the direction and magnitude of the Bragg line shift with resistivity increases, that the extra lines in RED indicate the existence of a hexagonal phase in these films as the source of the extra reflections, as opposed to a double diffraction process.