On the influence of thermal effects on internal stress measurements during and after deposition of silver, gold and copper films

To facilitate the correction for thermal effects of internal stress measurements obtained by the cantilever beam method, the change in temperature of the bending beam was measured during and after the deposition of silver, gold and copper films. The measurements were carried out in situ under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. From these measurements we calculated the thermal contribution to the total stress built up during the film deposition. For the given experimental conditions the thermal stress is tensile and is 0.6%, 2% and 16% of the measured total stress in gold, copper and silver films respectively. The thermal stress contributions are therefore almost negligible in comparison with the large internal stresses measured during as well as after the deposition of the metal film. Thus, the compressive stress built up during the film evaporation as well as the tensile stress change measured after the deposition of the metal film are intrinsic and are related to the structure of and to structural changes in the metal film.