Fabrication and Characterization of Ni Thin Films Using Direct-Current Magnetron Sputtering

Ni films are deposited by using ultra high vacuum dc magnetron sputtering onto silicon substrates at room temperature, and the high-quality and high-density films are prepared. The parameters, such as thickness, density and surface roughness, are obtained by using small-angle x-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses with the Marquardt gradient-expansion algorithm. The deposition rate is calculated and the Ni single layer can be fabricated precisely. Based on the fitting results, we can find that the surface roughness of the Ni films is about 0.7 nm, the densities of Ni films are around 97% and the deposition rate is 0.26 nm/s. The roughness of the surface is also characterized by using an atomic force microscope (AFM). The changing trend of the surface roughness in the simulation of XRD is in good agreement with the AFM measurement.