Improvement of Aluminium Film Adhesion on PMMA Using Pre-Layer and Specific Annealing

During the electron beam evaporation for deposition of an aluminium film, high-speed electrons decelerate when they bombard the material and part of the electron energy contributes to radiation. Due to the high sensitivity of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) to such radiation (in UV), the PMMA surface is degraded. This results in a weak surface of PMMA layer and decreases film adhesion. Based on the film interface adhesion mechanism and the relationship between film structure and stress, this research proposed and investigated a method for producing high quality Al reflective thin film on a PMMA surface with good adhesion. This was done by depositing a pre-layer of 20 nm Al using resistant evaporation to protect the PMMA surface from radiation damage, followed by the deposition of 80 nm Al using e-beam evaporation with ion assisted deposition. Using this method, an average reflectance of 88.6% was achieved in the wavelength range of 400–800 nm. The elastic modulus and hardness were tested by nanoindentation for the calculation of the thermal stress of the film. Adhesion was tested using the pressure strip peeling test and meets the military national standard.