Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A, Vol.24, No.1, 156-164, 2006
Conduction anisotropy in porous thin films with chevron microstructures
Electrical conductivity measurements were performed on structurally anisotropic thin films deposited using the glancing angle deposition apparatus [K. Robbie and M. J. Brett, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 15, 1460 (1997); K. Robbie, J. Sit, and M. J. Brett, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 16, 1115 (1998); K. Robbie and M. J. Brett, US Patent No. 5,866,204 (2 February 1999)]. The films were comprised of bilayers of titanium over silica, engineered as a chevron morphology. Samples were evaporated at various incident vapor deposition angles a, in order to investigate the effects of morphology and voiding on the behavior of conductivity. A rapid decline in the conductivity, accompanied by an increase in conduction anisotropy in the plane of the substrate, was observed with increasing a. A random walk model was developed to model the transport properties of the films, and applied to microstructures predicted by a three-dimensional ballistic thin film simulator. In order to generate reasonable agreement between the modeling and measurement, it was necessary to incorporate the effect of native oxide formation on the exposed surfaces of the titanium layer. (c) 2006 American Vacuttin Society.