  Ni thin films grown by thermal evaporation and sputtering under different
deposition conditions are characterized for structural and morphological
properties using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM)
techniques. XRD results suggested the growth of polycrystalline fcc Ni phase
for all the samples. Morphological characteristics of the films were compared
by analysing AFM data for root mean square roughness, height-height correlation
function and power spectral density (PSD) measurements. Applying fractal and
k-correlation fitting models to the PSD data, different morphological
parameters are quantified. The study suggested that Ni films grown at higher
substrate temperature (~ 150 oC) by thermal evaporation and at low Ar pressure
(~ 0.2 Pa) by sputtering techniques yielded films of small surface roughness
with Brownian fractal self-affine surfaces.
