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We have made detailed observations of gold thin films and commercial aluminum-copper alloy films, using transmission electron microscopy. All of the films embody a strong (111} fiber texture. We have measured the misorientation distributions for the grain boundaries in these films, and also determined the "grain boundary character distribution" in terms of the coincident site lattice model. We show that in spite of their apparent similarity, these films embody significant differences in terms of these measures.

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Computer simulations of the phenomenon of grain rotation in polycrystalline <111> textured films have been carried out. These simulations provide insight into the evolution of film microstructure due to grain rotation. It is found that grain rotation diminishes with annealing time and stops almost completely when a metastable equilibrium is obtained. The incidence of Σ1, Σ7 and Σ3 Coincident Site Lattice (CSL) boundaries increases with time while the other CSLs reduce in number. Sequential annealing experiments have been performed on thin films of gold. Grain rotation is found to take place with an average rotation rate of about 4°/hour at both 250°C and 350°C.