Effect of the Microstructure of Copper Films on the Damping of Oscillating Quartz Resonators*

An electrochemical procedure is described which allows the preparation of copper films of various crystallinity. Impedance spectra recorded for copper loaded quartz resonators were analysed in terms oft he lumped-element circuit of the Butterworth-Van Dyke type to obtain their electrical and mechanical properties. Plots of the damping resistance versus film thickness indicate that the film's dissipation factor is significantly smaller in the case of disordered films with a finer crystallinity (10—100nm) than in the case of more ordered structures having a grain size between 600—1500nm. This observations states, that the finely structured copper phase behaves more rigid than the coarse material. The suggested explanation relates this effect to energy losses which occur during oscillation at the phase boundary of the grains by wearless internal friction. No contributions to the damping from surface roughness were observed for films thicker 0.5pm. Thus, the damping of the quartz oscillator caused by different degrees of surface roughness of the generated copper films was of secondary importance, compared with the effect of the crystallinity