Preparation and controllability of Cu particles on annealed Mo-Cu alloy films

Abstract

Mo-Cu alloy films with different thicknesses were deposited on flexible polyimide substrates by magnetron sputtering and, optionally, in situ vacuum annealing. Compositions and surface morphologies of the films were characterized by FESEM and EDS. And this revealed annealing had an important effect on the microstructure of the alloy films. During annealing, a large number of uniformly distributed copper (Cu) particles formed spontaneously on the Mo-Cu alloy films surface, with their sizes, shapes and number closely related to Cu content, annealing temperature, and film thicknesses. Thus, we demonstrated a new way for preparing Cu/Mo-Cu alloy film with large specific surface area which can be used as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate.