Island-to-percolation transition during the room-temperature growth of sputtered nanoscale Pd films on hexagonal SiC

We have studied the growth of room-temperature sputtered Pd films on 6H-SiC by using the atomic force microscopy technique. In particular, we analyzed the Pd film surface morphology as a function of the film thickness from 3 to 72 nm observing that the Pd grows initially (thickness 2–12 nm) as three-dimensional (3D) islands. Then (thickness 12–36 nm) the Pd film morphology evolves from compact 3D islands to partially coalesced wormlike structures, followed (36–60 nm) by a percolation morphology and finally to a continuous and rough film (at 72 nm). The application of the interrupted coalescence model allowed us to evaluate the critical mean islands diameter $Rc≈6.6nm$ for the partial coalescence process while the application of the kinetic freezing model allowed us to evaluate the room-temperature Pd surface diffusion coefficient $Ds≈1.4×10−17m2/s$ on 6H-SiC. Finally, the application of the Vincent’s model allowed us to evaluate the critical Pd coverage $Pc=68%$ for the percolation transition.