Effect of Chemical Composition and Thickness on the Wetting Properties of Thin Films Produced by Pulsed Laser Deposition — 10p — Cayden Loeffelholz, Ananth Kandadai

Thin films are layers of material that can range from fractions of a nanometer to several micrometers in thickness. Thin films have many applications in technology including coatings, electronics, and optics. Understanding the wetting properties, which is how a liquid interacts with the surface of a material, is critical for hydrophobic coatings where water resistance is desired. The main objective of this research is to explore chemical composition and thickness influence the wetting properties of thin films using the pulsed laser deposition process. Films of Ti and Ag of their pure metallic, nitride, oxide, and oxynitride forms were deposited on Si (100) wafers using the process of combinatorial synthesis. Combinatorial synthesis allows for multiple thin films to be deposited on a single substrate with unique chemical composition, thickness, and other properties. Combinatorial synthesis is much more efficient than many other deposition methods. Measuring the contact angles that is made with a drop of DI water on the various thin films’ surfaces makes it possible to evaluate the hydrophobicity of a surface. A higher contact angle means that a surface is more hydrophobic. Of the tested thin films TiON and AgON displayed the highest levels of hydrophobicity. TiON and AgON were each deposited for 15, 30, 45, and 60 minutes to explore varying thicknesses. The results showed that the oxynitride forms of each metal show the higher levels of hydrophobicity, but there is no clear trend with altering thicknesses. Overall, this research displays the potential for optimizing the wetting properties of thin films by focusing chemical composition and thickness of thin films.

South Dakota School of Mines & Technology
Dr. Bharat Jasthi