Interrelationship of in situ growth stress evolution and phase transformations in Ti/W multilayered thin films

Abstract

This paper addresses the in situ growth stress evolution and phase transformation of bcc to hcp Ti in Ti/W multilayered thin films. A series of equal layer thicknesses from 20 nm to 1 nm were deposited. As the bilayer thickness reduced, the overall film stress became less compressive until the Ti transformed from hcp (at the larger layer thicknesses) to bcc in the 1 nm/1 nm multilayer. The pseudomorphic bcc stabilization resulted in a recovery of the compressive stress to values near that for the bulk phase stabilized for the 5 nm/5 nm multilayer. A discernable change in stress slope was noted for the bcc to hcp Ti transition as a function of Ti layer thickness. The stress states for each film, during film growth, are rationalized by the lattice matching of the phase with the growth surface. These results are coupled to a molecular dynamics deposition simulation which revealed good agreement with the experimentally observed transformation thickness.