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Ion Bombardment-Induced Stress Mechanism for the Formation of Ag Nanotwinned Films on Si Substrates

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Abstract

Nanotwinned face-centered-cubic (FCC) metals have gained significant attention recently due to their exceptional mechanical and electrical properties. Among all the FCC metals, Ag has the lowest stacking fault energy, which allows twin formation to easily occur. In this study, Ag films with a thickness of 4 µm were deposited on Si (100) substrates pre-coated with Ti adhesion layers by electron beam evaporation. With ion beam assistance during the evaporation process, highly (111)-textured and high-density nanotwinned Ag films with excellent properties were produced. Both x-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) analyses indicate that the Ag film possesses a strong (111) preferred orientation. In addition, statistical measurements from transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images show that the average twin spacing in nanotwinned Ag films with a deposition rate of 1.8 nm/s is only 6.1 nm. However, conventional models based on thermodynamics are insufficient to describe the formation of growth twins in an ion beam-assisted deposition system. Therefore, an ion bombardment stress model is introduced in this work. The results of the mechanism of deformation twinning are also discussed.

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Acknowledgments

This study was sponsored by the Emerging Technology Application Program of the Hsinchu Science Park R & D program of Ag Materials Technology Co., LTD under Grant No. 112AO03A.

Funding

Funding was provided by the Emerging Technology Application Program of the Hsinchu Science Park R & D program of Ag Materials Technology Co., LTD (112AO03A).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, 106, Taiwan

    Tung-Han Chuang, Ang-Ying Lin, Yen-Ting Chen, Yin-Hsuan Chen, Zi-Hong Yang & Po-Ching Wu

  2. Ag Materials Technology Co., LTD, Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu, 30078, Taiwan

    Tung-Han Chuang

  3. Inst. Optoelectronics, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Hsinchu, Taiwan

    Ang-Ying Lin

  4. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., TSMC, Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu, 30078, Taiwan

    Po-Ching Wu

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  1. Tung-Han Chuang
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Correspondence to Tung-Han Chuang.

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Chuang, TH., Lin, AY., Chen, YT. et al. Ion Bombardment-Induced Stress Mechanism for the Formation of Ag Nanotwinned Films on Si Substrates. J. Electron. Mater. 53, 2583–2590 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-023-10905-w

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