Have you solved your Al problem yet?

I've been thinking about it some and, though I wouldn't rule out an oxygen
leak, your problem sounds to me more like Al on Si Stranski-Krastanove (S-K)
growth. Basically the strain induced by the Al-Si lattice mismatch
eventually causes the film to switch from a monolayer by monolayer growth
mode to an island growth mode and the surface becomes increasingly rough
with additional Al (aka non-specular). Does your film need to be several
microns thick?

David A. Grove
Research Engineer
Luxel Corp.
www.luxel.com

A good politician is like a good football coach. He has to be smart enough
to do a good job but dumb enough to think it matters.

 -----Original Message-----
From:   [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]]  On Behalf Of
Sachin Rane
Sent:   Wednesday, January 07, 2004 9:44 AM
To:     [email protected]
Subject:        [mems-talk] Aluminum evaporation issues

Hi,
I have been trying to make ~ 1-2 micron thick aluminum films by thermal
evaporation. The films I get are typically white in color (non-shiny)
and rough (inspected through AFM). I have used both the boron nitride
crucible and tungsten boat as the source. The pressure at evaporation is
typically 2*10^-6 (before starting evaporation it is < 10^-6 ) What is
the problem? Or is thermal evaporation not a good method for this?
Thanks
SR

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