AFM and Ellipsometry studies of ultra thin Ti film deposited on a silicon wafer

An ultra- thin Ti film with a thickness of less than 30 nm was deposited on the surface of a silicon wafer by the filtered arc deposition system. A novel technique was adopted to create a height step between the coated area and non-coated area (silicon wafer) during deposition. The surface morphology and thickness of the film was detected by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The AFM results showed that the deposited film formed a smooth structure on the silicon wafer and the height step between the coating and silicon wafer was clear enough to give the thickness of the deposited film. The composition of the deposited film was detected by a combined use of Ellipsometry and AFM. Natural oxidisation of Ti (TiO2) was found on the top of the Ti film after deposition, and the thickness of TiO2 was determined by ellipsometry to be about 0.6 nm.