Scaling Analysis of a- and poly-Si Surface Roughness by Atomic Force Microscopy

Abstract

AbstractThe scaling behavior of the surface roughness of a-and poly-Si deposited on Si was investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The interface width W(L), defined as the rms roughness as a function of the linear size of the surface area, was calculated from various sizes of AFM images. W(L) increased as a power of L with the roughness exponent ∝ on shorter length scales, and saturated at a constant value of on a macroscopic scale. The value of roughness exponent a was 0.48 and 0.90 for a-and poly-Si, respectively, and σ was 1.5 and 13.6nm for 350nm-thick a-Si and 500nm-thick poly-Si, respectively. The AFM images were compared with the surfaces generated by simulation.