Stress formation and relaxation in amorphous Ta–Cr films

In the present paper, measurements of the intrinsic stress of thin amorphous Ta–Cr alloy films made by magnetron sputtering have been carried out. From the curvature of the substrates and by use of the Stoney formula, the stresses were determined. The bombardment of the growing film with energetic particles is shown to control the magnitude and sign of the intrinsic stress. When changing the deposition parameters, compressive or tensile stresses can be generated in the films in a range from about −2 GPa to +1 GPa. Also the stress relaxation, the change in the stress with time, has been studied for various temperatures. The stress relaxation was measured with a cantilever beam technique using a three-terminal capacitance method to detect the beam (substrate) deflection. The stress-relaxation data have been fitted to a mathematical model for stress relaxation related to inhomogeneous flow in amorphous films. This behaviour is expected to occur in the low-temperature, high-stress regime with deformation taking place along localized shear bands.