Effect of substrate temperature and film thickness on the characteristics of silver thin films deposited by DC magnetron sputtering

Silver (Ag) films were prepared by DC magnetron sputtering deposition at different substrate temperatures (25-450 degrees C) and film thicknesses (100-800 nm) and their morphological, optical, electrical and structural properties were investigated. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was employed to study the surface topography of the thin films. The grain size as well as surface roughness of the films is strongly dependent on the temperature and the film thickness. X-ray diffraction experiments showed the intensity enhancement by increasing substrate temperature, also by increasing film thickness. The optical properties were determined by means of spectrophotometric analysis. It is found that the optical reflection is not affected significantly with substrate temperature and film thickness. The electrical resistivities of films were determined by four-point probe measurements. The experimental results indicate that the films with higher thickness and deposition temperature have the lowest resistivity.