Development of the microstructure of sputter deposited gold on amorphous carbon

The deposition of sputtered gold atoms on the substrate of amorphous carbon was investigated using transmission electron microscope, atomic force microscopy and grazing-incidence small-angle scattering techniques. It was found from Rutherford backscatter ing that, in the range of deposited gold 10(15)-1.5 x 10(16)cm(-2), the condensation rate is constant and does not depend on the fractional coverage which exponentially increases versus time. It it shown that the majority of the gold atoms arriving onto the substrate are collected by the growing clusters. The experimentally measured average height of gold clusters only slightly increases with the amount of deposited gold and is always larger than the radius of clusters, indicating a quite cylindrical shape. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.