The influence of sublayer material on surface properties of electrodeposited nickel with periodical structures

Surface topography, hardness and microstructure of nickel coatings electrodeposited on Si master with a periodical structure have been studied depending on vacuum deposited sublayer material (Ni, Cu or Ag). It is shown that the quality of replication of silicon master in a nickel shim electrodeposited simultaneously on different sublayers is dependent on the material used. All types of the analyzed coatings enabled transfer of lateral dimensions and showed good replication quality of the tested periodical structures (2 μm period), while the structure replicated using the coatings deposited on the Ni sublayer exhibited the worst roughness. The hardness of the electrodeposited layers was found to be dependent on the sublayer material used as well as on the side of deposit. Despite the fact that the backside of nickel shim had the same hardness for all the sublayers used, it was found that the hardness of the working surface with periodical structure (the side that has been in contact with the vacuum deposited layer) is dependent on the sublayer material: the Ni and Cu sublayers increased the hardness of Ni coating, while for the nickel shim deposited on Ag sublayer the hardness was reduced.