Surface roughness in Langmuir-Blodgett multilayer films studied by AFM and X-ray diffraction

Langmuir-Blodgett multilayer films consisting of up to 100 layers of cadmium-substituted arachidic acid on silicon wafers have been studied. The samples were deposited from a water subphase containing Cd²⁺ ions by using an alternate-layer Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) trough under computer control. Long-range orientational order was observed by atomic force microscopy on the surface of films with a small number of layers. X-ray reflectivity curves showed regularly spaced Bragg peaks arising from multilayer structure. The periodicity of the LB film is in agreement with twice the estimated molecular length, which confirms that the multilayer structure has a bilayer (Y) configuration. We demonstrate that the growth process of the LB films must have been stochastic. Our results are in good agreement with the Eden model of growth.