Characterization of a nanometer-thick sputtered polytetrafluoroethylene film

Abstract Fast growth of nanotechnology, e.g. hard disk drive (HDD) and microelectromechanical system/nanoelectromechanical system (MEMS/NEMS), requires nanometer-thick protection films with high thermal stability and low surface energy. In this paper, we report the characterization results of a nanometer-thick sputtered polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) film prepared by radio frequency (RF) sputtering. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray reflectivity (XRR) results show that the nanometer-thick sputtered PTFE film has good uniformity. Thermally programmed desorption (TPD) results show that the film is thermally stable up to 430 °C. Surface energy measurement via contact angle method shows that the film has low surface energy with the thickness as low as 1.5 nm. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) data suggests that the film has crosslinked molecular structure, which results in amorphous morphology as shown by X-ray diffraction (XRD) data. Nano-indentation testing shows that the sputtered film has higher hardness and modulus than bulk PTFE. The structure–property relationship has been discussed.