Crystallographic Characterization of Sputter Deposited Nb-Cu Thin Films Using Electron Backscatter Diffracted Patterns.

Abstract

Crystallographic structure plays an important role in determining the fundamental physical properties of metallic thin films and superlattices, and structural characterization of such films is crucial for furthering the application of these materials [1]. Epitaxial films are usually characterized using a wide range of techniques including x-ray diffraction, REED, neutron diffraction, and highresolution electron microscopy. A complementary approach is electron backscatter patterns (EBSP), which is an SEM technique that can be used to measure crystallographic orientations of single or polycrystals [2].In this work, EBSPs have been used to characterize the crystallite size and orientation of sputterdeposited Cu films. The EBSPs were formed in a CamScan 44FE SEM and recorded using an ORTEX CCD camera system. The images were analyzed using the Channel+ software package, and orientation maps were plotted using Channel+Ice [3].