Film adhesion studies with the acoustic microscpe

Abstract

In the present study a number of chromium films 1000 Å thick on glass were imaged with the high resolution acoustic microscope operating with an acoustic wavelength of 6000 Å. The chromium films were known by inspection and by application of standard adhesion tests to be either well adhered or poorly adhered to the glass substrate. The acoustic and optical micrographs of identical areas clearly show the degree of adhesion to be a strong source of contrast in the acoustic images but not in the optical images. A comparison between the experimentally observed contrast in the acoustic images and a theoretical model for acoustic reflection microscope contrast shows good agreement.