Continuum-Spectral Modeling of Surface Roughness in Electron-Beam-Deposited GO/Ag Nanocomposite Thin Films

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Surface Science

Background:

• Electron-beam deposition is crucial for creating nanocomposite thin films.
• Characterizing thin film morphology, particularly roughness, is essential for performance.
• Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) provides surface topography but lacks temporal data.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a continuum-spectral framework for quantifying roughness in electron-beam-deposited GO/Ag nanocomposite thin films.
• To establish a data-driven method for extracting roughness parameters from AFM data.
• To validate the framework's accuracy and robustness for thin film characterization.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) for surface morphology measurements.
• Applying a continuum-spectral analysis to AFM data, fitting stationary power spectral densities (PSDs).
• Extracting parameters like smoothing coefficients, noise intensity, correlation length, and crossover scale.

Main Results:

• The fitted model accurately reproduces the dual (k^-2)/(k^-4) spectral scaling characteristic of these films.
• The framework successfully predicts the scan-size dependence of root-mean-square roughness with high accuracy (R^2 > 0.98).
• Parameters derived from spatially separated points confirm the lateral uniformity of the deposited films.

Conclusions:

• The continuum-spectral approach provides a robust and data-driven method for roughness quantification in nanocomposite thin films.
• This framework enables precise control over surface roughness during electron-beam deposition.
• The findings are applicable to optimizing the properties of graphene oxide/silver nanocomposite coatings.