A unified kinetic model for stress relaxation and recovery during and after growth interruptions in polycrystalline thin films.

A model for the kinetics of residual stress evolution is described that can be applied to both the relaxation during a growth interruption and the recovery following resumption of growth. The stress is attributed to simple atomistic processes based on reversible diffusion of atoms in and out of the grain boundary. Each of these processes is considered separately to understand how the rates differ during relaxation and recovery and how they depend on grain size, film thickness, temperature, deposition rate, and initial stress. The model is compared with experimental data obtained by others for several materials (Fe, Ni and Au). Image, graphical abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]