A thin chromium film formation monitoring method: Monitoring of the early stages.

A method to monitor thin film deposition on insulating and semiconductive substrates based on the surface cond. measurements is proposed. This method differs from previous thin film cond. measurement methods by the absence of an external power source. Instead, it employs natural charges carried by ions and electrons that are present in a vapor that is deposited. The ability to monitor thin film cond., starting with early nucleation stages up to the formation of the integrally conductive film is shown by a comparison of in-situ recorded voltage changes and ex-situ by XPS and at. force microscopy anal. of the stepwise covered samples. Repeatability of the exptl. data was within a ± 25% interval at the exptl. parameter region where an integrally conductive film starts to form. [on SciFinder(R)]