Telephone cord buckles in wedge-shaped Fe films sputtering deposited on glass substrates

Abstract By using expansive and mobile properties of silicone oil, a characteristic wedge-shaped iron (Fe) film system with a slope of about 10 − 5 rad has been prepared on glass substrates by a direct current magnetron sputtering method. Telephone cord buckles induced by residual compressive stress can be widely observed in the wedge-shaped films. The wavelength λ and amplitude A of the wavy buckles increase linearly with the film thickness h , but the ratio of A to λ ( A / λ ) remains a constant of about 0.34. The atomic force microscopy cross-sections show that as the film thickness increases, the half buckle width b increases drastically whereas the maximum buckle deflection δ is almost unchanged, and therefore the ratio of δ to b ( δ / b ) decreases steadily.