Inverted fractal analysis of TiOx thin layers grown by inverse pulsed laser deposition

Inverted fractal analysis (IFA), a method developed for fractal analysis of scanning electron microscopy images of cauliflower-like thin films is presented through the example of layers grown by inverse pulsed laser deposition (IPLD). IFA uses the integrated fractal analysis module (FracLac) of the image processing software ImageJ, and an objective thresholding routine that preserves the characteristic features of the images, independently of their brightness and contrast. IFA revealed fD = 1.83 ± 0.01 for TiOx layers grown at 5-50 Pa background pressures. For a series of images, this result was verified by evaluating the scaling of the number of still resolved features on the film, counted manually. The value of fD not only confirms the fractal structure of TiOx IPLD thin films, but also suggests that the aggregation of plasma species in the gas atmosphere may have only limited contribution to the deposition.