Percolation threshold determination of sputtered silver films using Stokes parameters and in situ conductance measurements.

Abstract

This work presents a straightforward approach to determine the percolation threshold of silver thin films deposited by magnetron sputtering on various oxide layers at room temperature. The proposed method is based on the observation of the coupling of p-polarized light with local surface plasmons. By measuring the first Stokes parameter in real time, one can determine the moment at which the nano-islands of silver begin to coalesce into a continuous film. We confirm the results by in situ and ex situ conductance measurements. The method is then used to assess the percolation threshold on different oxide seed layers such as ZnSnO, ZnO, TiO2, and SiO2.