Theory of abnormal grain growth in thin films and analysis of energy anisotropy

Abstract

A theoretical model is proposed for the abnormal grain growth in thin films of columnar grains. In addition to the grain boundary energy usually considered for the grain growth in bulk materials, the influences of surface energy, interface energy and strain energy are also considered in the model. A reviewed analysis is given out for the anisotropy of energy. For fcc and bcc metal films, surface energy minimization generally favours (111) and (110) textures, while strain energy minimization generally favours (110) and (100) textures.

Influence of Target Current on Structure and Performance of Cu Films Deposited by Oscillating Pulse Magnetron Sputtering

“…When the target current increased from 8 to 18 A, the preferred orientation of films was dominated by crystal plane (111). It has been known that Cu with FCC structure owns crystal plane (111) with densely packed atoms, which has the lowest surface energy [27], while crystal plane (200) has the lowest strain energy [28]. Generally, the preferred orientation during film growth is the result of competition between strain Obviously, the difference in diffraction peak intensity indicated the differences in grain size and preferred orientation of the Cu film.…”