MM 669 Mechanical Behaviour of Thin Films

Dept. of Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science, IIT Bombay

TUTORIAL 4
To be discussed in class on 17/2/2011

Q 1. A thin polycrystalline Si film on an (001) Si substrate has an initial grain size of 10 nm. The
film is to be annealed, during which time the grains are expected to grow. Using a simple
thermodynamic argument, and assuming that no plastic deformation occurs during annealing,
determine what the initial stress in the film must be (i.e. The stress in the film before grain growth)
if the final equilibrium grain size is to be 1 μm.

Q 2. For the Si film in Q1, what is the critical grain for which minimum energy will occur when the
film has grown to a single crystal? When will maximum stresses occur?

Q 3. Explain: If vacancies annihilate at an edge dislocation in the film, stresses will arise only if the
edge dislocation has a Burgers vector component in the film plane.

Q 4. If vacancy volume is not equal to atomic volume, then irrespective of the site of annihilation,
there is a volumetric strain, which can be calculated as: ∆V/V = ∆c(Ω-Ωv). What is the stress
associated with this volumetric strain? If 1/3rd of all vacancies annihilate at grain boundaries, what
would be the stress?

Useful Numbers:
Si: γgb = 0.5 J/m2, δgb = 3.1355 A, C11=166.2 GPa; C12=64.4 GPa; C44=79.8 Gpa