Oxidation kinetics of metal films at 300 K studied by the piezoelectric quartz crystal microbalance technique

Abstract

The oxidation kinetics of metal films of lanthanum, titanium, hafnium, vanaidum, tantalum, chromium, manganese, iron, nickel and aluminium were studied with a quartz crystal microbalance at 35°C and O 2 pressures between 10 −3 and 10 5 Pa for exposure times ranging from 1 to 10 4 min. In the initial stage of the reaction (less than 2 min) a large amount of oxygen is absorbed in a very fast process and oxide scales are formed with a thickness between 1 and 10 nm. This quantity depends on the metal under consideration and in some cases (lanthanum, titanium, vanadium, tantalum, aluminium) strongly also on O 2 pressure. In the subsequent oxidation process (10 to 10 3 min) smaller amounts of O 2 are absorbed at a logarithmic growth rate of differing magnitude for various metals.