Thin film coating of copper nanoparticles with DC magnetron sputtering via physical vapor deposition

Abstract

A copper nanoparticle exhibit electromagnetic spectrum that is potential in a biosensor development. It is crucial to design a low cost nanoparticle biosensor that is easily fabricated at precise sizes and density. This paper provides a convenient method for copper nanoparticle deposition on a glass substrate with a magnetron sputtering process known as Physical Vapor Deposition. The main objective is to determine a reliable prediction recipe for various nanometer copper film thicknesses. In this experiment, six glass slides were coated with copper at different sputtering time. The time was varied from 280 sec to 980 sec while Argon gas and DC power were maintained respectively at 80 sccm and 130 watt. Later, the optics based measurement and electron microscope were employed for assessing the copper film thickness. The experiment result indicates different thicknesses were achieved from 35 nm to 45 nm at various sputtering time. A uniform and continuous coating were achieved as magnified by Scanning Electron Microscope. The result is beneficial for evaluating the anisotropy of the copper coating for a nanoscale microbial detection at different spectral wavelength.