Microstructure of Au Film Prepared by Magnetron Sputtering Deposition

We study the formation of microstructure of gold films that generally undergo three processes: nucleation and nuclear growth, normal grain growth, and abnormal grain growth. Here the grains grow as a column in the normal grain growth process. When the grain size becomes larger than and comparable to the film thickness, the grains with favourable orientation will grow at the expense of the grains with unfavourable orientation, leading to abnormal grain growth. The abnormal grains grow along the favoured orientation (111), which has been certified by x-ray diffraction spectroscopy. Finally, the processes of the normal and abnormal grain growth are fitted using the Lifshitz--Slyozov--Wanger theory.