Adhesion, internal stress, microstructure and resistivity of thin alloy films of aluminium, copper and silver

Abstract

A series of Ag-Cu, Cu-Al and Al-Ag thin films was made by vapour deposition. With a variety of experimental techniques we studied the composition dependence of several properties of the deposits. Microstructural investigations were performed with X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy, supplemented by electrical resistivity measurements. Mechanical properties such as the adhesion of the films to their substrates and internal stresses in the deposits were studied also. In this paper we discuss mutual connections between these physical and mechanical phenomena for the alloy films investigated.