The Sputtering Process and Thin Films

What is a thin film?

 

For our research, we are investigating the properties of a thin film deposited on a stretchable substrate.  But how is a thin film formed?  There are a number of processes, but the one we have used to create our samples for these experiments is called “sputter deposition.”

 

In order to deposit iron on the surface of our nitinol sample, we fired argon atoms at an iron sample, effectively “splashing” the iron onto the nearby substrate material, as illustrated in the graphic below.

 

After depositing the thin film on the nitinol substrate, we needed to determine the thickness of the film.  To do this, we sputtered a glass sample as well as several nitinol samples. The fasteners that kept the samples securely in place during the sputtering process shaded a portion of the glass slide, which allowed us to examine the glass with and without any film deposited on it.  Our results are summarized in the graphic below.

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