During the past decade electroless plating has been utilized widely for formation of the precise functional films. It is important to investigate the initial deposition processes since the functional characteristics are determined at the early stages of deposition.
In this study electroless nickel deposition was measured in-situ by laser beam, and it is concluded that initial deposition comprises a number of characteristic stages. There was found to be an induction period before the plating reaction. Induction time was largely dependent on catalyst adsorption and dissolved oxygen concentration. After this induction time, the initial deposition reaction took place very rapidly at the activated catalytic sites, and the reaction then stagnated and eventually reached steady-state. Transmission electron micrographs show that initially the nickel grew laterally followed by steady-state growth, and the plating reaction proceeded three dimensionally.