An XPS study of Au alloyed Al–O sputtered coatings

• Author(s): Figueiredo, N. M. ; Carvalho, N. J. M. ; Cavaleiro, A.
• Date: 2011
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10316/20043
• Origin: Estudo Geral - Universidade de Coimbra
• Subject(s): XPS; Al2O3–Au; Au clusters; Alumina; Charging effect
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

The focus of this research is the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis of thin films consisting of Au metal clusters embedded in a dielectric matrix of Al-O coatings. The coatings were deposited by co-sputtering an Al+Au target in a reactive atmosphere with Au contents up to 8 at.%. The Al-O matrix was kept amorphous even after annealing at 1000°C. In the as-deposited films the presence of Au clusters with sizes smaller than 1-2 nm (not detected by XRD) was demonstrated by XPS. With increasing annealing temperature, Au clustering in the dielectric matrix was also confirmed by XPS, in agreement with XRD results.