Measurement of lateral stress in argon implanted thin gold films using quartz resonator techniques

Abstract

Self-consistent measurements of mass change, lateral stress and temperature in thin films during implantation can be made using three quartz resonators of different crystallographic cuts simultaneously. Thickness measurements of an evaporated Au film were made by Rutherford backscattering (RBS) on all three resonators: first, of the original gold electrodes, then following application of approximately 200-nm gold films, and finally after sputtering with 50-keV Ar ions. The dose was monitored by collected charge on the samples and was verified by RBS measurement of a Si sample placed in the same environment. The sputtering yields on the three resonators can be measured directly by RBS. They were different for the three resonators. Applying these sputtering yields to the resonator frequency change information allowed a calculation of lateral stress accumulation to be made.