Effect of film coating thickness on tuning fork frequency: Experimental measurement and dynamic calculations

Quantum-level properties of materials emerge at the thin-film level, and the structural, optical and electrical properties of materials change depending on the thin-film thickness. In this context, thin film coating thickness plays an important role in the development of materials with new and unique properties. In this thesis, a new method has been proposed to measure the film thickness with a quartz tuning fork (QTF) and a patent application has been made on this subject (Patent application no: 2022/018799 ). The reason is that QTF exhibits a more stable attitude even compared to quartz crystal microbalance (QCM), which is the most widely used film thickness measurement method, and thus, it can perform more sensitive detection and measurement processes than other thin film thickness measurement methods. In this thesis, mathematical approaches to frequency shifts were brought with large-scale tuning fork (TF) and small-scale quartz tuning fork (QTF), the contributions of the elasticity modulus of the coated film to the frequency were detailed, and the film thickness was experimentally measured and calculated as a result of coatings with QTF. In addition, etching studies were carried out on TF and QTF surfaces, and the effects of etching on frequency were investigated experimentally and theoretically and compared with the frequency situation occurring in QCM sensors in case of etching.