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 that rely on control of the film stress to values within 10-100 MPa. 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 iridium. Additionally, we have identified zero stress in iridium shortly after island coalescence. 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. The surface roughness of this low-stress film was examined using scanning probe microscopy (SPM) and x-ray reflectivity (XRR) at CuKα and these results presented and discussed.