Characterization of AL–Y alloy thin films deposited by direct current magnetron sputtering

Thin films of Al-1.27 wt %Y were deposited by dc magnetron sputtering. Adding yttrium to the aluminum drastically reduced the metal’s grain size and also improve the uniformity of grain size distribution. Upon annealing at a temperature of 450 °C for 30 min, grain growth was insignificant, while the electrical resistance dropped from 6.05 to 2.95 μΩ cm. The as deposited films consisted of Al4Y and α-Al supersaturated with yttrium. After annealing, β-Al3Y precipitated instead of α-Al3Y. The Al–Y films had much higher resistance to hillock formation than did Al-1 wt %Si films.