The measurement of stress during the deposition of thin films

The deflection of a small cantilever during the deposition of a surface layer on one side is conveniently and sensitively monitored by holographic interferometry. Stresses developing when silver was electroplated onto vapour-metallized semiconductor substrates have been measured using a sequence of lapsed-time holographic interferograms recorded on a single photographic plate. This multi-framing technique, involving screening of the reference beam, has some advantages compared with the real-time technique.