title: Nano-scale surface morphology evolution of Cu/Ti thin films.
abstract: This paper discusses solid-phase reaction, agglomeration and dendritic growth of Cu/Ti/Si thin films with different sublayer thickness, 70 nm Cu/20 nm Ti/Si and 20 nm Cu/70 nm Ti/Si, annealed using rapid thermal annealing (RTA) method at the temperature from 500 degrees C to 800 degrees C. The crystal structure is examined using XRD, and the surface morphology is measured by SEM and AFM. The sheet resistance is measured using four-point probe method. The dendritic patterns can be obtained in both thin films at high temperature but the density is not similar. For 70 nm Cu/20 nm Ti/Si thin films, Cu agglomerates at the annealed temperature upon to 700 degrees C and thin film is still crystalline after 800 degrees C. For 20 nm Cu/70 nm Ti/Si thin films, Cu agglomerated completely only after 500 degrees C and thin film has amorphous structure annealed after 800 degrees C.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China.
authors.forename: Qi-Jing
authors.initials: QJ
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Shu-Ming
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Weixuan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jing
authors.forename: Zhuang-De
authors.initials: ZD
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Chen-Ying
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Wang