Surface roughness and interface width scaling of magnetron sputter deposited Ni/Ti multilayers

Abstract

Using an indigenously built r.f. magnetron sputtering system, several single layer Ti and Ni films have been deposited at varying deposition conditions. All the samples have been characterized by Grazing Incidence X-ray Reflectivity (GIXR) and Atomic Force Microscopy to estimate their thickness, density, and roughness and a power law dependence of the surface roughness on the film thickness has been established. Subsequently, at optimized deposition condition of Ti and Ni, four Ni/Ti multilayers of 11-layer, 21-layer, 31-layer, and 51-layer having different bilayer thickness have been deposited. The multilayer samples have been characterized by GIXR and neutron reflectivity measurements and the experimental data have been fitted assuming an appropriate sample structure. A power law correlation between the interface width and bilayer thickness has been observed for the multilayer samples, which was explained in the light of alternate roughening/smoothening of multilayers and assuming that at the interface the growth “restarts” every time.