Effects of annealing temperature on morphology and thickness of samarium electrodeposited thin films

Jonathan D. Burns, Kristian G. Myhre, Nathan J. Sims, Daniel W. Stracener, Rose A. Boll

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11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Electroplated depositions of Sm were prepared using a vertical well-type electrodeposition unit with an aqueous ammonium acetate electrolyte system, with an average deposition yield just over 87%. The depositions were analyzed for morphology and thickness by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and chemical composition by energy dispersion X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) before and after firing. The depositions were fired at 125-700 °C, while varying the heating rate from 0.5 to 10 °C/min in either an oxidizing or reducing atmosphere. A heating rate of 10 °C/min was slow enough to prevent disruption of the deposition morphology during firing. A gas sweep enhanced the removal of any organic substituents, with an oxidizing environment being more advantageous than a reducing environment.

Funding

These authors gratefully acknowledge David Glasgow and the other NAA laboratory staff at the HFIR for their help in sample irradiation and data collection. We also gratefully acknowledge Harry Mayer III at the HTML for performing the XPS experiments and data collection. This research is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Physics , Isotope Development and Production for Research and Applications Program . This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract no. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).

Keywords

  • Electrodeposition
  • Electroplated deposition
  • Samarium
  • Thin film

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