Comparative study of the growth of sputtered aluminum oxide films on organic and inorganic substrates

TL;DR

This study compares the growth characteristics of aluminum oxide films on organic and inorganic substrates, revealing similar surface morphology and growth dynamics, which could impact their use in electronic devices.

Contribution

It provides a direct comparison of aluminum oxide growth on organic versus inorganic substrates, highlighting their similar surface and growth properties under specific conditions.

Findings

Surface morphology of aluminum oxide is similar on both substrates.

Roughness exponent  indicates comparable growth dynamics.

Good agreement of  values suggests similar growth mechanisms.

Abstract

We present a comparative study of the growth of the technologically highly relevant gate dielectric and encapsulation material aluminum oxide in inorganic and also organic heterostructures. Atomic force microscopy studies indicate strong similarities in the surface morphology of aluminum oxide films grown on these chemically different substrates. In addition, from X-ray reflectivity measurements we extract the roughness exponent \beta of aluminum oxide growth on both substrates. By renormalising the aluminum oxide roughness by the roughness of the underlying organic film we find good agreement with \beta as obtained from the aluminum oxide on silicon oxide (\beta = 0.38 \pm 0.02), suggesting a remarkable similarity of the aluminum oxide growth on the two substrates under the conditions employed.