Monte Carlo Simulation and Experimental Verification of Thickness Effect in Grain Growth of Nanosized Film

The grain growth behavior within nanosized films during annealing was studied with anisotropic Monte Carlo simulation. The results indicate that the thickness effect only appears while the grain size is 0.8~1.2 time film thickness but not during the entire process of grain growth. The Burke’s equation is to be modified by adding a factor related to the ratio of average grain size to film thickness so as to describe the dynamic characteristic of the grain growth. This modification has been verified by the experimental result derived from grain growth in Ni/SiO2 nanosized multilayer film. After comparing kinetic of grain growth restrained by solute drag,second phase drag and thickness effect,a more universal equation was proposed.