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 niobium and other transition metals were deposited prior to the deposition of silver. It was found that in some cases, the transition metals lead to coalescence of silver at nominally thinner films with smoother topology. The smoothing or roughening effects by the presence of the transition metal can be explained by kinetically limited transition metal islands growth and oxidation, followed by defect-dominated nucleation of silver.