Strain Energy Effects on Texture Evolution in Thin Films: Biaxial vs. Uniaxial Stress State

Grain growth in thin films is usually accompanied by texture evolution due to the crystallographic dependencies of surface, interface and strain energies. In this work the driving forces for grain growth for a 1 and 5 μm thick Cu thin film on a polyimide substrate are calculated assuming biaxial and uniaxial stress. While the results for the biaxial stress state are used to explain observed textures, for the case of uniaxial stress predictions suggest new ways to control the texture of thin films.