Enhancing the conductivity and crystallinity of (111) platinum films via a two-temperature deposition and substrate annealing

Developing routes to deposit highly conductive (111) oriented platinum films with sub-nanometer roughness will provide a platform to develop unique hexagonal and (111) oriented cubic materials. A two-temperature e-beam deposition process is proposed for the growth of (111) oriented platinum films on Al2O3 to simultaneously induce crystallographic texturing, improve conductivity, and reduce surface roughness. Depositing an initial platinum layer at 700 °C induces texturing then subsequently depositing at 500 °C promotes planar growth. The resulting (111) platinum films exhibit a narrow rocking curve full width at half maximum of 0.004°, a surface roughness of 0.20 nm, and conductivity of 8.99 × 106 S/m simultaneously—reaching metrics that are not currently available by other deposition methods. The e-beam deposition methodology developed in this study provides a route to increase the performance of platinum as a conductive substrate. [Display omitted]