Surface and electrical properties of NiCr thin films prepared by DC magnetron sputtering

Several batches of NiCr alloy thin films with different thickness were prepared in a multi-targets magnetron sputtering apparatus by changing sputtering time while keeping sputtering target power of Ni and Cr fixed. Then the as-deposited films were characterized by energy-dispersive X-Ray spectrometer (EDX), Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and four-point probe (FPP) to measure surface grain size, roughness and sheet resistance. The film thickness was measured by Alpha-Step IQ Profilers. The thickness dependence of surface roughness, lateral grain size and resistivity was also studied. The experimental results show that the grain size increases with film thickness and the surface roughness reaches the order of nanometer at all film thickness. The as-deposited film resistivity decreases with film thickness.