Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 January 2013
A comprehensive and rather complete study for the synthesis of Bismuth thin-films using physical vapor deposition (PVD) techniques aimed at identifying key features of their crystallographic structure and morphology/topography, as a function of the synthesis method is presented. These films were deposited on oxidized and non-oxidized polished silicon substrates, glass-plates and polyimide flexible films, by thermal evaporation (resistive boat and e-beam) DC- and RF-magnetron assisted sputtering, and pulsed laser (ablation) deposition (PLD). The synthesis was performed controlling the main deposition parameters of these methods.
XRD-spectra conclusively indicate that the films can be preferentially oriented along the [003] or [012] Bi-structure’s directions, depending on the source-to- substrate (STS)-distance, sputtering power, substrate’s temperature and PLD ion’s kinetic energy. It is also concluded that a relatively short STS-distance results in a rather polycrystalline structure, near independent to the used sputtering power.