Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
In the present study the ion irradiation technique is used to investigate the origin of the stress-field in Mo layers grown by ion beam sputtering. Strain measurements were performed by X- ray Diffraction (XRD) using the sin 2 ψ method. The evolution of the sin 2 ψ plots with ion irradiation shows that the usual assumption of a biaxial stress state is not adequate to determine the true stress-free lattice parameter a 0 of the film. A new stress model based on a triaxial state of stress, which includes a hydrostatic component linked to point defects induced volume distortions, is derived to interpret the XRD results. For pure Mo films, the obtained a 0 parameter is close to the bulk value, while for Mo sublayers in Mo/Ni superlattices, the a 0 value is lower due to intermixing between Ni and Mo. These results demonstrate that ion irradiation is a powerful tool for stress relaxation, which allows to obtain additional information on the respective contribution of chemical effects and growth defects to the a 0 value.