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Grain Growth in Thin Films With Variable Grain Boundary Energy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

H.J. Frost,
Y. Hayashi,
C.V. Thompson and
D.T. Walton
H.J. Frost
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College, Thayer School of Engineering, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755
Y. Hayashi
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College, Thayer School of Engineering, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755NEC Corporation, ULSI Research Laboratory, 1120Shimokuzawa, Kanagawa229, Japan
C.V. Thompson
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College, Thayer School of Engineering, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755
D.T. Walton
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College, Thayer School of Engineering, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755Digital Equipment Corporation, 75 Reed Road, Hudson, Massachusetts 01749
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Abstract

In simulations of grain growth in thin films we have considered the effect of variations in grain boundary energy. Boundary energy depends on both the misorientation between the two neighboring grains, and the angles which the boundary plane makes with the crystallographic axes of the two crystals. Variations in grain boundary energy mean that dihedral angles at triple junctions deviate from 120°. The proportionality between boundary velocities and local curvatures, and the critical curvature for boundary pinning due to surface grooving also both depend on boundary energy. One effect of variable boundary energies is that grains no longer gain or lose area at rates determined solely by their topology or number of sides. (They no longer obey the Von Neumann/Mullins law). Another effect is that as the grain structures evolve, the fraction of high-energy boundaries decreases. Also, the stagnant structures have broader grain size distributions.

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Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 317: Symposium B – Mechanisms of Thin Film Evolution , 1993, 485
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1994

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References

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