Impact of deposition rate on structural, morphological and optical properties of E-beam evaporated chromium thin film

Abstract

The structural, morphological and optical properties of thin chromium film are investigated on the dependency of deposition rate with characterization by X-ray Diffraction, SEM-EDS, AFM and UV–Visible spectroscopy. A high vacuum E-Beam vacuum coating device fabricates thin chromium film at different deposition rates on borosilicate glass. XRD diffractogram reveals that film is in amorphous nature at low deposition rate. The crystallite size is increases with increases the deposition rate but strain is in opposite nature. It is decreases as deposition rate increases indicate no peak shifting. AFM demonstrates that smoother surfaces with higher deposition rates reduce scattering losses i.e., from 0.016 to 0.006 nm. SEM-EDS spectra gives information about pure chromium is deposited on substrate without any oxides and sulphides formation. Optical analysis depicts that transmittance is decreases with deposition rate and uniform in visible range. As the rate of deposition rises, the extinction coefficient and absorption coefficient drop.