Property modification of Ag films by ion assisted deposition

Ion beam vapour deposition (IVD) technique is used to prepare Ag films on single crystal Si(111) and polished quartz substrates. The macroscopic properties of these films are all significantly improved. The magnitude of the film grain size is found to correlate with the bombarding energy and current density. The intrinsic stress of films parallel to the substrates exhibits a sharp reversal change from high-tensile to high-compressive values. The Ag 3d binding energy for the IVD-Ag film have a shift towards higher energy (about 0.69 eV, as the bombarding condition is 3 keV, 4 mA) at different depth. The authors consider that these improvements are attributed to ion bombardment effects, i.e., sputtering, surface-enhanced diffusion and incident ion incorporation.