Structure and morphology of Cu/Ni film grown by electrodeposition method: A study of neutron reflectivity and AFM

Abstract We present detailed study of structure and interface morphology of an electrodeposited Cu/Ni film using X-ray diffraction, X-ray reflectivity, neutron reflectivity and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques. The crystalline structure of the film has been determined by X-ray diffraction, which suggest polycrystalline growth of the film. The depth profile of density in the sample has been obtained from specular X-ray and neutron reflectivity measurements. AFM image of the air–film interface shows that the surface is covered by globular islands of different sizes. The AFM height distribution of the surface clearly shows two peaks and the relief structure (islands) on the surface in the film, which can be treated as a quasi-two-level random rough surface structure. We have demonstrated that the detailed morphology of air–film interfaces, the quasi-two-level surface structure as well as morphology of the buried interfaces can be obtained from off-specular neutron reflectivity data. AFM and off-specular neutron reflectivity measurements also show that the morphologies of electrodeposited surface is distinctively different as compared to that of sputter-deposited surfaces in the sample.