STM STUDY OF THE INITIAL GROWTH STAGES OF AlF3 ON Cu(100)

J. C. MORENO-LÓPEZ; R. A. VIDAL; M. C. G. PASSEGGI(JR); J. FERRÓN

Rosario

Congreso; CIASEM2009 / SAMIC2009, 10th Inter-American Congress of Electron Microscopy and 1st Congress of the Argentine Society of Microscopy; 2009

CIASEM (Comité Interamericano de Sociedades de Microscopía Electrónica)

The composition, growth mechanism and structure of thin films of insulators deposited onseveral metal surfaces are topics that have attracted widespread interest in recent years. Work inthis field has been motivated by the quality requirements of thin films needed to developadvanced microelectronic, optical, and magnetic devices, as well as nanometer-scale structures.Aluminium fluoride films (AlF3) are of particular interest, due to radiolysis effects, for theirpotential applications for nanometer-scale patterning in electron beam lithography. By means ofscanning tunnelling microscopy, we have studied the initial stages of the aluminium fluoridegrowth on Cu(100) as a function of coverage and annealing temperature. At the very beginningstage, the study reveals the nucleation of AlF3 islands at the step-edges. Once the steps aresaturated, stable dendritic islands nucleate over the terraces, growing in a LBL style up toalmost complete the first monolayer. Under annealing, the films seem to be stable up to 700 K,where AlF3 starts to decompose. Square-like islands are observed at this stage.