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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 9: Poster: Interfaces and Thin Films (joint session with DECHEMA and VDI)

CPP 9.35: Poster

Montag, 11. März 2013, 17:30–19:30, Poster C

Morphology of ultrathin gallium oxide layers — •Frank Lawrenz¹, Nikolai Severin², Jürgen P. Rabe², Christiane A. Helm¹, and Stephan Block³ — ¹Institut für Physik, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Universität, Felix-Hausdorff-Str. 6, D-17487 Greifswald, Germany — ²Department of Physics, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Newtonstr. 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany — ³ZIK HIKE, Fleischmannstr. 42 - 44, D-17475 Greifswald, Germany

Liquid gallium is applied onto mica, silicon and silica surfaces. AFM tapping mode imaging shows micrometer sized gallium drops accompanied by extended, ultrathin layers, which we attribute to gallium oxide (GaOx) films passivating the surface of liquid gallium under ambient conditions. On all surfaces investigated, the GaOx layers exhibit a thickness of about 3 nm and a roughness similar to the underlying substrate. Although they replicate patterns of the substrate topography, they also exhibit high mechanical stability, as normal forces on the order of 1 µN (for tip radii of some 10 nm) have to be applied to abrade the layer. We discuss different methods of liquid gallium application onto the surfaces which lead to ultrathin GaOx layers of different quality with respect to layer homogeneity and coated area.