Stereometric analysis of Ta₂O₅ thin films

The purpose of this work is the study of the correlation between the thickness of tantalum pentoxide thin films and their three-dimensional (3D) micromorphology. The samples were prepared on silicon substrates by electron beam evaporation. The differences in surface structure of the processed and reference samples were investigated. Compositional studies were performed by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Stereometric analysis was carried out on the basis of atomic force microscopy (AFM) data, for tantalum pentoxide samples with 20 nm, 40 nm, 60 nm, 80 nm and 100 nm thicknesses. These methods are frequently used in describing experimental data of surface nanomorphology of Ta₂O₅. The results can be used to validate theoretical models for prediction or correlation of nanotexture surface parameters.