Crystallographic evolution of microstructure in thin film processing: Part II. Grain boundary structure

Abstract

The technique of electron backscattered diffraction is used to charactcrize the microtexture and mesotexture of grain neighborhoods in an annealed thin film of Al97Ge3 on thermally oxidized silicon. Of the microstructural features present in this material, a "sunken" (or "collapsed") grain neighborhood is examined in terms of its mesotexture. The representation of crystallographic orientation between a "sunken" grain and its surrounding neighbors is assessed using inverse pole figures and Rodrigues-Frank (R-F) space orientation mapping. The two types of mappings are compared and detailed calculations of R-F space are shown. The advantages of the R-F space representation are illustrated. The total number of grains examined is 78 while the number of axis-angle pairs is 72. The microtexture is a strongly preferred < 111> parallel to the substrate normal while the mesotexture is comprised of low angle boundaries and fiber mesotexture as indicated by a R-F map. © 1994 The Metallurgical of Society of AIME.