Surface scaling behaviour of size-selected Ag-nanocluster film growing under subsequent shadowing process

Surface morphology of size-selected silver nanocluster films grown by dc magnetron sputtering has been investigated by means of an atomic force microscopy (AFM). From the height-height correlation functions obtained from corresponding AFM images, the scaling exponents are calculated and two types of growth regimes have been observed. In the first regime, the growth exponent is found to be beta(1) = 0.26 +/- 0.01 close to the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang growth exponent, while in the second growth regime shadowing effect plays dominant role which gives the growth exponent value beta(2) = 0.85 +/- 0.15. On the other hand for the whole deposition regime, the roughness exponent value is found to be constant around alpha = 0.76 +/- 0.02. UV-Vis spectroscopy measurement suggests how the average reflectance of the film surface changes with different growth times.