Real-time stress evolution during early growth stages of sputter-deposited metal films: Influence of adatom mobility

Theoretical and experimental study of metastable solid solutions and phase stability within the immiscible Ag-Mo binary system

“…This growth stress is relaxed upon growth interruption due to outdiffusion of atoms from the grain boundaries while grain growth, which leads to tensile stress, takes place leading to essentially stress free films. 39,40,41 Backscattered Ar + ions may also contribute to compressive stress generation in Ag films. Given the similar masses of Ag and Mo, the energy and flux of backscattered Ar species is expected to be similar resulting in a similar hydrostatic stress contribution for all films.…”

“…42 This is consistent with the notion of limited atomic mobility encountered during the growth of refractory metals close-to-room temperature as previously discussed. 3,36,37 With increasing Ag content in the films the effective mobility of film forming species increases (as Ag exhibits higher atomic mobility than Mo at room temperature) 37,39,40 resulting in a denser microstructure which is less prone to impurity incorporation. The incorporation of O and C species in the Morich grains is excluded due to the lack of oxide or carbide signature in the corresponding Mo 3d XPS spectra (not shown here).…”

Phase stability and in situ growth stresses in Ti/Nb thin films

“…In such measurements, a tensile stress is associated with the grains within the film "stretching" towards each other to reduce the grain boundary energy. Compressive stress, in the initial growth state, is associated with the nucleation of the adatoms coming together [13,14], whereas postcoalescence compressive stress is still debated [15][16][17][18]. This latter compressive stress has been hypothesized to be from adatoms migrating into grain boundaries, creating this stress state [19,20].…”

Magnetron Sputtering Deposition of Ag/TiO2 Nanocomposite Thin Films for Repeatable and Multicolor Photochromic Applications on Flexible Substrates

“…The maximum temperature rise is estimated to be lower than 10 °C, based on a previous work from the authors [ 40 ] involving the same magnetron sputtering device.…”