A comparison of nucleation and growth investigations of thin films using scanning tunneling microscopy, atomic force microscopy and X-ray scattering

Roughness and general morphology of silver films grown on Si(111) substrates have been investigated using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray scattering. The results are quantitatively analyzed in terms of height histograms, height–height correlations in the light of dynamical scaling approach. The scaling exponents obtained by the three techniques used here are in agreement with each other. Some quantitative differences in rms roughness can be explained by considering wavelength spectrum of roughness probed by these techniques.