Smoothing of ultrathin silver films by transition metal seeding

The nucleation and coalescence of silver islands on coated glass was investigated by in-situ measurements of the sheet resistance. Sub-monolayer amounts of transition metals (Nb, Ti, Ni, Cr, Zr, Ta, and Mo) were deposited prior to the deposition of silver. It was found that some, but not all, of the transition metals lead to coalescence of silver at nominally thinner films with smoother topology. The smoothing effect of the transition metal at sub-monolayer thickness can be explained by a thermodynamic model of surface energies.