Lattice expansion in nanocrystalline niobium thin films

High-purity nanocrystalline niobium (Nb) thin films have been deposited using high-pressure magnetron sputter deposition. Increasing the pressure of the sputtering gas during deposition has systematically led to reduced crystallite sizes in these films. Based on x-ray and electron diffraction result...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2003-06, Vol.82 (24), p.4250-4252
Main Authors: Banerjee, R., Sperling, E. A., Thompson, G. B., Fraser, H. L., Bose, S., Ayyub, P.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:High-purity nanocrystalline niobium (Nb) thin films have been deposited using high-pressure magnetron sputter deposition. Increasing the pressure of the sputtering gas during deposition has systematically led to reduced crystallite sizes in these films. Based on x-ray and electron diffraction results, it is observed that the nanocrystalline Nb films exhibit a significantly large lattice expansion with reduction in crystallite size. There is however, no change in the bcc crystal structure on reduction in crystallite size to below 5 nm. The lattice expansion in nanocrystalline Nb has been simulated by employing a recently proposed model based on linear elasticity and by appropriately modifying it to incorporate a crystallite-size-dependent width of the grain boundary.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.1582361