Surface Roughness of "Smooth Surfaces"
We present surface roughness information about various smooth surfaces offered by SPI Supplies
Introduction:
With the increasingly greater amounts of nanotechnology work involving self-assembled
arrays, molecular studies on surfaces, and other surface sensitive experiments, the
researcher has more and more reason to be concerned about the surface roughness of
the substrates onto which they place their samples. While we realize that surface
roughness is difficult to control from a manufacturing standpoint, and also the
information presented is not offered as some kind of product specification, we do
believe that having some data is better than having no data at all. Keep in mind
that most of our competitors who offer these kinds of products offer no data about
surface roughness, either because they don't appreciate its importance to the
researcher or else because the roughness of their products is embarrassingly
inferior to the higher quality products offered by SPI Supplies.
Typical values:
We have measured by AFM the surface roughness of typical SPI Supplies products:
| Ra |
| Silicon nitride membranes: | 0.5 nm |
| Mica (Grade V-1): | 0.03- 0.05 nm |
| HOPG (SPI-1): | 0.03-0.05 nm |
Notes: For comparison., a high quality silicon wafer has roughness value of 0.05 nm.
Mica and HOPG are locally smoother than that. The lower number for roughness is taken
from areas of a single facet and are devoid of any debris features from the cleaving
(e.g. preparation) of the surface.
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Sunday July 20, 2008
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