Crystallographic and morphological properties of magnetron sputtered Ti and Zr thin films

Crystallographic and surface morphological characteristics of polycrystalline hcp Ti and Zr thin films were studied as a function of the homologous substrate temperature TS/TM and the thickness t of the films (28 nm ≤ t ≤ 380 nm). TS is the substrate temperature during deposition and TM is the melting point of the film's material. For the whole range of considered temperatures (0.14 ≤ TS/TM ≤ 0.48) Zr films presented a {0002} crystallographic orientation. As TS/TM increased, Ti films suffered a transition from a columnar grain structure with {0002} preferential crystallographic orientation to a cone-like-shape grain structure with {1011} preferential crystallographic orientation. Our results suggest that Zr films suffer a structural transition from Zone T to Zone II at temperatures similar to those predicted by Thornton's Structure Zone Model for thick films while Ti films do not have a microstructure typical of Zone II even for relatively high values of TS/TM, presenting a transition from Zone I to Zone T in the studied range of temperatures.