Morphological effects and their relation with the electrical resistivity measured during the initial stages of growth of Au/glass films

The electrical resistivity measured during the first stages of growth on gold thin films is compared with the surface morphology data obtained in order to relate the percolation effects observed on the AFM images. By using a free-software WSxM Ver 7.1 from Nanotec we analyzed the surface of gold films deposited on glass substrates by thermal evaporation by means of flooding surfaces. Film thickness was ranged from 4 to 40 nm. Results show a clear dependence between surface characteristics and the electrical resistivity, meaning that observed percolation effects on films have a large influence on the electrical resistivity. Poor physical connections between grains in the first 25 nm of thickness are the main cause of the observed effects.