Atomic force microscopy analysis of surface topography of pure thin aluminium films

Abstract: Pure aluminium thin films were deposited on stainless and mild steel substrates through rf magnetron sputtering at rf powers of 150 and 200 W. Surface analysis of the films was undertaken using atomic force microscopy. The surface structure evolution, roughness and distribution were examined and discussed. Power spectral density, skewness and Kurtosis parameters were used to explain the nature and distribution of the surface structures on the thin aluminium films as reported from the line profile analyses. The result shows that the morphologies of the surface structures of Al films vary with power and substrate type. The coatings exhibit the higher roughness at 200 W. There is strong links that exist between AFM observations and SEM. This implies that AFM can be considerably used to study the microstructural evolution of Al thin films during magnetron sputtering