Stress induced grain boundaries in thin Co layer deposited on Au and Cu

Abstract

In this work, the structure and stress evolution in Co/Au and Co/Cu two-layer systems during deposition were studied. The growth of this system is evaluated by employing molecular dynamic simulations with potentials based on the embedded atom method theory. We used the kinematical scattering theory and the Ackland-Jones bondangle method to the structural characterisation of deposited layers. In both systems, only compressive stress is observed during the deposition process and process relaxation of stress is visible. In Co/Au systems, creation of grains and grain boundaries is observed.

Microstructure, Surface Plasmon, Magneto-Optic Surface Plasmon, and Sensitivity Properties of Magneto-Plasmonic Co/Au Multilayers

“…Lattice strain  is a measure of deviation in lattice constant a, arising from crystal imperfection due to lattice dislocation and size mismatch. Other sources of crystal imperfection include coherent stress, sintering stress, stacking faults, grain boundary, and defects [40]. Crystallite size and strain are well known for showing the strong effect on Bragg peaks differently.…”

“…The thickness of these MLs is usually expressed as [Co (tCo)/Au (tAu)] × N = 20, where tCo and tAu are Co and Au layer thicknesses, respectively, and N is the layer periodicity. Au and Co are immiscible metals, meaning they show a high lattice mismatch of about 14 %, leading to strong interface roughness in the as-deposited state [11][12][13][14]. However, this surface roughness and lattice mismatch can be significantly improved if these multilayers are adequately annealed under controlled conditions, and by doing so their optical, magnetic, and structural, and magneto-optic properties can be changed and tuned substantially [15][16][17][18][19][20].…”