Structural and electrical properties of Al100−X Mgx/Si(1 1 1) thin films

Abstract

Morphological and electrical properties of AlMg thin films and the impact of the elaboration conditions on their quality are investigated. For this purpose, thin layers of AlMg of different Mg content were deposited by vacuum evaporation on a monocrystalline silicon substrate in the MECA2000 evaporator. The properties were studied by the X-ray diffraction technique (XRD), XRF, the optical and mechanical profilometer and the four-probe method. The interpretation of the X-ray diffraction spectra allowed us, among other things, to affirm that the films are poly-crystalline with β and δ phases. Generally, the lattice parameter of the Al-Mg samples was slightly higher compared to the bulk one amassif. As a result, our samples show a general increase in grain size as the thickness increases. Observations with optical profilometry, we have established that the surface is of dense appearance with presence of many grains. The results of the measurement of the roughness show increased values with the increase of x at.% Mg whose maximum is at 190 nm corresponding to a x at.% Mg of 97.As for the electrical measurements, they report a maximum resistivity of 3.6 × 10−3 Ω.cm. Keywords: Thin films, Al-Mg alloys, Grains size