SURFACE-ENERGY-DRIVEN SECONDARY GRAIN-GROWTH IN THIN SB FILMS

Deposition rates and film thicknesses have been observed to be a key parameter for the grain growth and surface-energy-driven secondary grain growth of the as-deposited thin Sb films prepared by thermal evaporation. At a low deposition rate and thinner-film thickness (approximately 260 angstrom), (003) grains which have the lowest surface energy are observed to account for approximately 90% of the microstructure. Whereas at high deposition rate and greater film thickness (approximately 1300 angstrom), an almost random grain orientation was observed from x-ray diffraction data. After thermal annealing at 450-degrees-C, secondary grains grew to show preferred orientation in all the films. Also, film thickness has been found to be an important factor on the succeeding microstructure after thermal annealing.