On the grain size and coalescence stress resulting from nucleation and growth processes during formation of polycrystalline thin films

When polycrystalline films form by nucleation, growth, impingement, and coalescence of islands on a substrate surface, the grain size at impingement depends on the relative magnitudes of the nucleation rate, the growth rate, and the dimension of the zone from which adatoms diffuse to a growing island. A simple description of the interdependence of these parameters is developed. It is used to discuss the dependence of the grain-size-at-impingement and the intrinsic stress resulting from coalescence on the deposition rate and the substrate temperature, and to discuss how these might affect texture evolution during film growth.