The production of well-bonded gold films on silica using dynamic recoil mixing

Abstract

Thin gold films were deposited onto silica substrates using the dynamic recoil mixing (DRM) technique. The adhesion of the films to the substrates was assessed using a pull test. Several different cleaning procedures were followed to prepare the silica before deposition and it was seen that these had a significant effect on the results. After the application of the best technique available a series of DRM experiments were carried out using a 10 keV Ar + ion beam at various fluences. For a fluence of 1 x 10 17 Ar + ions cm -2 the adhesion of gold on silica increased by a factor of 30 compared with that for sputtered films. When oxygen was introduced into the system during the initial sputtering of gold the resulting films showed very poor adhesion as determined by a pull test. This result contradicts previous adhesion measurements based on scratch tests, showing that pull and scratch tests cannot be compared directly.