Enhanced deposition and reflective properties of thin aluminium films by substrate vibration

Abstract

The influence of substrate's vibration during vacuum deposition of aluminium thin films on copper substrates was examined. Aluminium metal was evaporated in specially designed vacuum chamber using the hot-filament technique. Copper substrates were subjected to a vibration of 7.6 kHz during deposition. The Al coatings were identified using X-ray diffraction spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy was used to examine the resulting microstructures deposited on the substrates. Coatings deposited under substrate vibration had fewer particles, spherical in shape and deposited over uniformly over the entire surface. This was not the case for the non-vibrated substrates, which tended to have much more densely packed granular shaped particles. The reflectivity experiments revealed that vibrated substrates were superior to the non-vibrated substrates by 28 %, while the difference in the thermal response was around 14 %

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