Quantitative correlation between intrinsic stress and microstructure of thin films

A critical review of the available literature on thin film intrinsic stress has generated a database with 111 entries representing 19 different metals deposited by evaporation. Although there is a wide range of experimental conditions, the data can be presented in a comprehensible way based on the surface mean free path of diffusing adatoms. This characteristic length L is calculated based on the deposition temperature, the melting temperature of the evaporant, and the deposition flux. The calculated strain as a function of L not only shows the trends in a quantitative way, but also allows one to connect the data with the thin-film microstructure as represented in structure-zone models. The proposed procedure appears to also be applicable to amorphous metallic glass thin films (4 alloy systems, 29 entries) as well.