Correlation between texture and average grain size in polycrystalline Ag thin films

Abstract The texture and average grain size are investigated in series of silver thin films deposited at various substrate temperatures and different vacuum conditions, by introducing the ‘structure curve’, which describes their correlation. Its slope gives information on the relative contribution of normal and abnormal grain growth to the structure evolution. In contaminated films normal grain growth is suppressed. The texture sharpness has a maximum both in clean and contaminated films above 200°C. This maximum corresponds to 1 and 0.5 μm average grain size in clean and contaminated films, respectively.