Ion beam sputter deposition of epitaxial Ag films on native oxide covered Si (100) substrates

Epitaxial Ag films were grown on native oxide covered Si(1 0 0) substrates by an ion beam sputter deposition process at elevated deposition temperatures. At RT, films were observed to be non-epitaxial but with preferred (1 1 1) orientation. However, elevated substrate temperatures and under highly energetic sputter deposition process assist the growth of Ag films, that exhibit an epitaxial relationship with the underlying Si(1 0 0) substrates. With increasing deposition temperature an increase in the crystalline quality was observed with a narrowing mosaic distribution of crystallites and a decrease in the fraction of 1st order twins. The lowest epitaxial growth temperature was observed to be as low as 100 °C