Dynamic scaling in sputter grown tungsten thin films

The evolution of a tungsten thin film grown by magnetron sputtering was studied using a dynamic scaling approach. Film growth was followed in-situ and in real-time by monitoring both the specular and the diffuse X-ray scattered intensities as a function of the time of deposition. The analysis of the scattering data allowed us to determine the two Power Spectral Density (PSD) functions, which describe the thin film topography. The time-dependent PSD-function, which describes the dynamic of the external film surface, is found to obey a universal scaling form, which characterizes the thin film growth. The data collapse of these PSDs into a single master curve was achieved using scaling exponents α = 0.18 ± 0.02 and β = 0.06 ± 0.01. In addition, by analyzing the temporal variation of the roughness conformity, it has been demonstrated that the replication factor decreases exponentially with increasing film thickness and spatial frequency. Hence, for a 25 nm thick film the vertical correlation disappears for spatial frequencies p greater than 3.6 μm^− 1.