Selective growth of epitaxial Ag film using tribo-assisted reorientation

Abstract

The growth process and crystallinity of incremental Ag films with thicknesses of 5, 50, and 500 nm, grown on reoriented Ag (1 1 1) surface of 5 nm Ag layer were studied by in situ reflection high energy electron diffraction and synchrotron-orbital-radiated X-ray diffraction. These studies clarified the correlation between the film orientation and the initial orientation of the basal plane, as a function of the incremental thickness. The incremental film grows epitaxially on the reoriented surface up to 500 nm in thickness, and the orientational degree increases with thickness. When the Ag film grows as a polycrystalline structure up to 50 nm in thickness, however, the Ag (1 1 1) orientation is then dominant at a thickness of 500 nm. The incremental films on the reoriented surface show a higher degree of crystal orientation than that on the initial polycrystalline surface, and the difference in orientational degree between these films on the two different kinds of basal planes becomes small as the thickness increases. A new method for selective growth of the epitaxial Ag layer using tribological phenomenon is presented under complete dry process. The feasibility of diffracted X-ray patterning by the difference between Ag (1 1 1) diffraction intensities from the two incremental regions is also discussed to show one kind of application using selective growth phenomena.