Compactness evaluation of amorphous and nanocrystaline thin films by FT-IR reflection–absorption spectroscopy

Abstract

A method based on FT-IR near-grazing-incidence-angle reflection–absorption spectroscopy and the phenomenon of the Berreman effect was developed for the estimation of the compactness or density of thin films. The testing of the method was performed on amorphous and nanocrystaline Cu-oxide thin films, which were prepared on Au covered glass and Si wafer substrates by wet chemistry route using dip-coating technique. The density of the film was used as a parameter, which was adjusted in the simulation calculation until the sufficient agreement between calculated and experimental near-grazing angle reflection spectra was achieved. The results showed the increase in density of Cu-oxide films with repeated dip-coating cycles. This was in agreement with the observation of the microstructure with TEM and SEM.