Rapid Thermal Annealing at the Temperature of 650°C Ag Films on SiO2 Deposited STS Substrates

Flexible opto-electronic devices are developed on the insulating layer deposited stainless steel (STS) substrates.The silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ) material as the diffusion barrier of Fe and Cr atoms in addition to the electrical insulation between the electronic device and STS is processed using the plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition method.Noble silver (Ag) films of approximately 100 nm thickness have been formed on SiO 2 deposited STS substrates by E-beam evaporation technique.The films then were annealed at 650 o C for 20 min using the rapid thermal annealing (RTA) technique.It was investigated the variation of the surface morphology due to the interaction between Ag films and SiO 2 layers after the RTA treatment.The results showed the movement of Si atoms in silver film from SiO 2 .In addition, the structural investigation of Ag annealed at 650 o C indicated that the Ag film has the material property of p-type semiconductor and the bandgap of approximately 1 eV.Also, the films annealed at 650 o C showed reflection with sinusoidal oscillations due to optical interference of multiple reflections originated from films and substrate surfaces.Such changes can be attributed to both formation of SiO 2 on Ag film surface and agglomeration of silver film between particles due to annealing.