Section 3.5.1.5. Evaporated and sputtered thin films

Thin nonmetallic films are prepared by electron-beam heating and by plasma sputtering for direct applications such as optical and dielectric films and for standard samples for calibration of the X-ray and electron-energy-loss element-analysis spectrometers on the electron microscopes. The thickness, crystallinity, and composition of the evaporated films are determined by the method of deposition. Co-evaporation from several electron-beam sources is used to produce films of different composition. Reproducible polycrystalline as well as amorphous microstructures are produced using heated and unheated substrates of glass, mica, metal, carbon. The crystalline electron-beam-evaporated films are used for diffraction standards and have been used to observe line broadening and lattice-spacing shifts that result from strain and compositional differences in the films.

Glasses with known compositions are used as sources for plasma sputtering to make thin-film composition standards. Such standards are required for quantitative analysis of ceramic transmission-electron-microscope specimens.