Correlation between growth stress and microstructure in CoCrPt alloy thin film with nanogranular structure

Abstract

We have investigated in situ stress evolution for (Co82Cr18)(87)Pt-13 /Ti alloy film in an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) chamber equipped with a highly sensitive optical deflection-detecting system. A very large compressive stress is developed at the very beginning of CoCrPt alloy deposition, and it turns into a smaller tensile stress at about 5-Angstrom CoCrPt thickness. After 20-Angstrom CoCrPt deposition, the tensile stress again turns back to compressive stress. The microstructural studies at the each transition thickness region revealed that microstructural changes play a major role for the observed stress variation at the initial growth stage. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.