I am putting gold seed layers down on Oxide.  I know that I need
adhesion layers of Cr or Ti and diffusion barriers of Ni, Pd or Pt help
too, but I cannot seem to find anything that explains the adhesion
phenomena.  Can anyone out there explain why some metals adhere better
than others and why small concentrations of the non-adherent cause the
whole thing to delaminate?  Or are these things better just documented
experimentally?

Thanks,
Greg Reimann
Boston University