Evaluation of the scaling exponent of self-affine fractal surface from a single scanning probe microscope image

Abstract

A direct method of evaluating the scaling exponent H of a self-affine fractal surface from a single topographic image recorded by using scanning probe microscopy is presented. This method uses the fact that for these surfaces the root-mean-square roughness increases with length as L^H. The method is applied to study the fractal nature of silver films of different thicknesses and it is observed that the variation in the scaling exponent H is in correlation with the surface roughness and the observed growth mode.