Impact of Surface Chemistry on Grain Boundary Induced Intrinsic Stress Evolution during Polycrystalline Thin Film Growth

First principles calculations were integrated with cohesive zone and growth chemistry models to demonstrate that adsorbed species can significantly alter stresses associated with grain boundary formation during polycrystalline film growth. Using diamond growth as an example, the results show that lower substrate temperatures increase the hydrogen content at the surface, which reduces tensile stress, widens the grain boundary separations, and permits additional atom insertions that can induce compressive stress. More generally, this work demonstrates that surface heteroatoms can lead to behavior which is not readily described by existing models of intrinsic stress evolution.