Fractal properties of heat treated metal-compound semiconductor structures

The heat treatment of metallized Au(10 nm)/InP(100), Au(30 nm)/InP(100), Au(85 nm)/InP(100) structures were studied by in situ scanning electron microscopy combined with mass spectrometry. Correlation was found between the surface morphology and the volatile component loss caused by the material interactions taking place during the heat treatment. Earlier experiments proved that the surface morphology can be characterized by its fractal dimension. In this paper the dependence of the fractal dimension of the surface pattern on the heat treatment temperature and on the metal thickness is described.