Journal of Materials Science, Vol.39, No.20, 6215-6219, 2004
Electron microscopic study of sputter-deposited Ir films
The microstructural development of iridium (Ir) film deposited on isotropic graphite by a sputtering method was investigated using a. transmission electron microscope. A columnar structure was developed in which the diameters of columnar grains were distributed from 3 to 50 nm at the substrate temperature of 330 K. Directions of grains were almost perpendicular to the substrate surface, and grain boundaries were wavy. Grains forming the columnar structure indicated different orientations of a growth direction, though growth orientations of grains showed the weak preferred orientation of a [111] direction. Non coincident related boundaries, as well as low angle grain boundaries and twin boundaries tend to be observed more frequently than coincidence lattice related boundaries. (C) 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers.