Nano-structural Characteristics of Ag UHV Deposited Thin Films Using X-rayDiffraction Line Broadening Analysis

The influence of deposition rate, deposition angle and film thickness on nano-structure of silver thin films depositedon glass substrates under uhv condition by electron beam evaporation is investigated. crystallite size, lattice constant,preferred orientation, and nano-strain in ag films are determined. (ill) preferred orientation is observed forsilver films, which is dependent on deposition rate, film thickness and angle of incidence, with the highest value atthe highest deposition rate examined (i,e., 22.5 ns). nano-structural parameters such as crystallite size (size of coherentlydiffracting domains) and nano-strain are evaluated using scherrer and lattice strain relations. results showthat the crystallite sizes for ag thin films increase with film thickness, and deposition rate. the variation of nanostrainand lattice constants with deposition rate and film thickness is the same. it is shown that the influence of depositionrate (particularly at high deposition rate) on the nano-structure of thin films studied in this work is the same assubstrate temperature reported by savaloni et al (2006).