In-situ ellipsometric study of growth of Au thin films

We have equipped an ion assisted deposition system with a rotating-analyzer ellipsometer (RAE) for in-situ monitoring of the deposition process. We propose the optimum conditions for the SiO2/Si substrate system for observation of growth processes of Au film deposition. The deposition of Au films on optimized silicon oxide substrates was observed in- situ using the RAE. The growth curves for Au films were different from those for continuous layer growth in the initial stage. The critical thickness at which the growth became continuous layer growth varied with the irradiated current density of Ar ions. The ion-current density for the minimum critical thickness of Au films has an optimum value of around 100 (mu) A/cm2. The initial stage of Au growth before continuous layer growth occurred was analyzed using the Maxwell-Garnett theory and semi-quantitative agreement was obtained between the experimental and calculated results.