Residual stress and crystal orientation in magnetron sputtering Au films

Abstract

Au films were deposited on Al 2O 3 substrate by magnetron sputtering and then annealed in Ar gas at 400 °C for 1 h. The crystal orientation, residual stress, and their relationship were investigated as a function of temperature. The residual stress in as-deposited films at different substrate temperatures was of tension (155–400 MPa) and changed to compression after samples annealing. The films were highly textured having a dominating Au(111) or a mixture of Au(111) and Au(200) orientation, and the (111)/(200) intensity ratio decreased after samples annealing. It was clarified that the stress in the plane of the film depends on crystal orientation. The film with (200)-oriented grains in the plane of the film has the lowest compressive stress and that with (111)-oriented grains has the highest tensile one. It appears that the intensity ratio of diffraction peaks of (111)/(200) can be used as a merit for the state and magnitude of residual stress in the film.