Thickness dependent lattice expansion in nanogranular Nb thin films

Journal Article · Thu May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2008 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2924332· OSTI ID:21137270

Hazra, Dibyendu; Datta, Subhadeep; Mondal, Mintu; Gupta, Anjan K ^[1]; Ghatak, Jay; Satyam, P V ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur 208016 (India)
2. Institute of Physics, Sachivalaya Marg, Bhubaneswar 751005 (India)

We report on the dependence of the lattice parameter on thickness (t) and grain size (D) in nanogranular Nb thin films deposited on Si (100) substrates by using dc magnetron sputtering. The lattice parameter is found to exponentially increase with decreasing thickness as well as grain size. We analyze the lattice expansion in terms of the excess free volume in the grain boundaries, which is found to decrease with the grain size in large thickness limit. The thickness dependence of the lattice expansion and the grain size dependence of the excess free volume are discussed in terms of the oxygen content in the grain boundaries.

• OSTI ID: 21137270
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 103, Issue 10; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.2924332; (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
EXPANSION
GRAIN BOUNDARIES
GRAIN SIZE
LATTICE PARAMETERS
NANOSTRUCTURES
NIOBIUM
OXYGEN
SPUTTERING
SUBSTRATES
THICKNESS
THIN FILMS