Morphological and Structural Characterization of Magnetron-Sputtered Aluminum and Aluminum-Boron Thin Films

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The article summarize and gathers a comprehensive research around the evaluation of the effects of sputtering coating parameters (mainly power and substrate type) on deposited films when using both aluminium and aluminum alloys, showing improvements in morphological and structural aspects. 

A few minor comments for the authors to address: 

Line 43. The authors mentioned "this atmosphere improved the material surface, leading to a flatter topography". I would recommend the authors to dive in a bit more into the relationship implied in the claim, answering how the atmosphere conditions can lead to such physical observation. 

Line 75. The authors mentioned "The target films thickness was set to reach 500 nm". Although standardized, I would suggest the authors to briefly explain why the target film thickness was set at such value. 

Line 118. The authors mentioned "are formed by comprehensive stresses generated upon sputtering". I would suggest the authors to specify or clarify (briefly) the nature of such stresses and how they impact specific physical outcomes in the material. 

Line 141-42. The authors mentioned "The overall roughness results for the pure aluminum and Al-4B films did not unveil an apparent substrate-related effect". I would recommend the authors to extend that claim and include why they hypothesized such effect was not observed. 

Line 143-45. I would suggest the authors to hypothesize what would have happened if the thickness of the film was below or above the 500 nm target parameter set. Would the effects still become masked? 

Line 166-67. The authors mentioned "Subsequently, the roughness became relevant when the film thickness exceded 50 nm, due to grain growth". I would suggest the authors to further explain the relationship grain growth-roughness for better clarification, in a brief manner. 

Line 321-22. The authors mentioned "it showed greater crystallinity when compared to its aluminum counterpart" I would suggest the authors to briefly hypothesize why this effect was observed and clearly expected, and also why at lower sputtering power, the phenomenon was not observed. 

 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors of the manuscript titled: "Morphological and Structural Characterization of Magnetron-Sputtered Aluminum and Aluminum-Boron thin Films" showed in the text the influence of addition of boron into a Al sputtering target. The resulting layers are more uniform woth lower roughness than those formed from pure Al target on both glass and silicon substrates.

The work is clearly presented, the introduction section is rather concise, but describes the problem quite satisfactorily. Experimental section contains all necessarry information on the used methods and analytical tools. The results section is very well put together with very good discussion with relevant literature. Figures are mostly clearly formatted. Overall the text is very well presented and I have only few minor things to point out:

The word "furbished" would probably be better changed for "equipped" in the text.

There is a typing error in the numerical value in Table 4 - glass substrate, 160 W sputtering power Al-4B sample, the value of parameter a is stated wrongly.

I would suggest the authors to rethink or improve the layout of their tables, so they are easier to read.

The authors can also consider modifying the "scan area" axis in the figures 1 and 2 so the values in the graphs are easier to see.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.doc