Publication 10-CNA-12
Grain Growth and the Puzzle of its Stagnation in Thin Films: A Detailed Comparison of Experiments and Simulations
Katayun Barmak
katayun@andrew.cmu.edu
Scott Roberts
sr2e@cmu.edu
Anthony Rollett
rollett@andrew.cmu.edu
Terry Shyu
tshyu@andrew.cmu.edu
Materials Research Science and Engineering
Center and the Department of
Materials Science and Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
David Kinderlehrer
davidk@andrew.cmu.edu
Shlomo Ta'asan
shlomo@andrew.cmu.edu
Richard Sharp
rwsharp@cmu.edu
Materials Research Science and Engineering
Center and the Department of
Mathematical Sciences
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh 15213, USA
Eva Eggeling
Fraunhofer Austria Research GmbH, 8010 Graz, Austria
eva.eggeling@fraunhofer.at
Kevin Coffey
krcoffey@mail.ucf.edu
Tik Sun
ti857626@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu
Bo Yao
bo555252@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu
Advanced Materials Processing and Analysis Center
University of Central Florida
Orlando, FL 32816, USA
Abstract:
We revisit grain growth and the puzzle of its
stagnation in thin metallic films. We bring together a large body of
experimental data that includes the size of more than 30,000 grains obtained
from 23 thin film samples of Al and Cu with thicknesses in the range of 25 to
158 nm. In addition to grain size, a broad range of other metrics such as the
number of sides and the average side class of nearest neighbors is used to
compare the experimental results with the results of two dimensional
simulations of grain growth with isotropic boundary energy. In order to
identify the underlying cause of the differences between these simulations and
experiments, five factors are examined. These are (i) surface energy and
elastic strain energy reduction, (ii) anisotropy of grain boundary energy, and
retarding and pinning forces such as (iii) solute drag, (iv) grain boundary
grooving and (v) triple junction drag. No single factor provides an
explanation for the observed experimental behavior.
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