The sign and magnitude of the intrinsic stresses observed in evaporated metal films cannot be predicted from a priori knowledge. In an effort to correlate the observed intrinsic stress, S, with other physical parameters, S has been measured in films of fifteen different metals. The stress was measured in situ by the cantilevered substrate technique. The films were evaporated from an electron bombarded source in vacuums of 10−6 to 10−7 Torr onto glass substrates at room temperature. Under these conditions the intrinsic stress was generally found to be tensile, though exceptions were observed. The data obtained indicate that films of metals with higher melting temperatures and larger shear moduli have intrinsic stresses which approach a magnitude roughly equal to 0.01 of the shear modulus. It is suggested that such high values of stresses are generated by the annealing and constrained shrinkage of disordered material buried behind the advancing surface of the growing films. Reduction of the stress is predicted when surface rearrangements preempt the need for extensive subsequent internal annealing. This proposal is considered in the relation to the experimental observation that the intrinsic stress is small when the ratio of the (absolute) substrate and melting temperatures exceeds 1/4.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.