Chapter 5 - Nucleation and Growth of Metallic Thin Films

Abstract

In this chapter, we pursue our discussion of nucleation and growth phenomena as key steps in the formation of thin films, i.e. metallic layers that are typically below 100nm. Indeed, these coatings generally form by nucleation of the isolated islands that grow and coalesce into a continuous deposit, following the principles discussed. This mechanism is usually referred to as Volmer-Weber. Early coalescence of the islands is needed to allow the formation of extremely thin continuous films. Hence, a dense enough nucleation is generally required to achieve this goal. This is a central issue in many practical cases, as will be illustrated in this chapter.