Achieving zero stress in iridium, chromium, and nickel thin films

We examine a method for achieving zero intrinsic stress in thin films of iridium, chromium, and nickel deposited by magnetron sputter deposition. The examination of the stress in these materials is motivated by efforts to advance the optical performance of light-weight x-ray space telescopes into the regime of sub-arc second resolution. A characteristic feature of the intrinsic stress behavior in chromium and nickel is their sensitivity to the magnitude and sign of the intrinsic stress with argon gas pressure, including the existence of a critical pressure that results in zero film stress. This critical pressure scales linearly with the film’s density. While the effect of stress reversal with argon pressure has been previously reported by Hoffman and others for nickel and chromium, we have discovered a similar behavior for the intrinsic stress in iridium films. Additionally, we have identified zero stress in iridium shortly after island coalescence in the high adatom mobility growth regime. This feature of film growth is used for achieving a total internal stress of -2.89 MPa for a 15.8 nm thick iridium film with a surface roughness of 5.0 ± 0.5Å based on x-ray reflectivity (XRR) measurement at CuKα. The surface topography was also examined using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The examination of the stress in these films has been performed with a novel in-situ measurement device. The methodology and sensitivity of the in-situ instrument is also described herein.