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Publication 10-CNA-012

Grain Growth and the Puzzle of its Stagnation in Thin Films: A Detailed Comparison of Experiments and Simulations

Katayun Barmak
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
katayun@andrew.cmu.edu

Eva Eggeling
Fraunhofer Austria Research GmbH
Visual Computing
A-8010 Graz, Austria
eva.eggeling@fraunhofer.at

Richard Sharp
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
rwsharp@cmu.edu

Scott Roberts
Carnegie Mellon University
sr2e@cmu.edu

Terry Shyu
Carnegie Mellon University
tshyu@andrew.cmu.edu

Tik Sun
University of Central Florida
ti857626@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu

Bo Yao
University of Central Florida
bo555252@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu

Shlomo Ta'asan
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
shlomo@andrew.cmu.edu

David Kinderlehrer
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
davidk@andrew.cmu.edu

Anthony D. Rollett
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
rollett@andrew.cmu.edu

Kevin Coffey
University of Central Florida
krcoffey@mail.ucf.edu

Abstract: We revisit grain growth and the puzzle of its stagnation in thin metallic films. We bring together a large body of experimental data that includes the size of more than 30,000 grains obtained from 23 thin film samples of Al and Cu with thicknesses in the range of 25 to 158 nm. In addition to grain size, a broad range of other metrics such as the number of sides and the average side class of nearest neighbors is used to compare the experimental results with the results of two dimensional simulations of grain growth with isotropic boundary energy. In order to identify the underlying cause of the differences between these simulations and experiments, five factors are examined. These are (i) surface energy and elastic strain energy reduction, (ii) anisotropy of grain boundary energy, and retarding and pinning forces such as (iii) solute drag, (iv) grain boundary grooving and (v) triple junction drag. No single factor provides an explanation for the observed experimental behavior.

Get the paper in its entirety as 10-CNA-012.pdf

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