Use of Electrochemical Deposition to Create Randomly Rough Surfaces and Roughness Gradients

A novel approach to reproducibly generating randomly rough surfaces over large areas and generating surface roughness gradients is presented. By tuning the electrochemical deposition potential for silver onto an electrode, the island nucleation density can be systematically varied resulting in thin films of different roughness. We find that the potential range that significantly influences the surface roughness also corresponds to a reaction/mixed-controlled deposition regime. The roughness can be replicated onto other moldable materials, thus enabling future studies involving the effect of surface roughness.