Texture, twinning and secondary extinction of vacuum deposited silver thin films

In the present work the texture, secondary extinction and twinning of vacuum evaporated Ag films have been studied using standard X-ray diffractometer and texture diffractometer techniques. The films exhibit a sharp multicomponent texture: a main [111] component accompanied with a twin-related [511] component and a weak [100] component. It is shown that the correct evaluation and interpretation of the structural properties requires secondary extinction to be taken into account. The effect of secondary extinction on volume fraction measurements of texture components is evaluated on {111} pole figures. The systematic error due to extinction could be considerably decreased when the {200} pole figures were used for the calculation of volume fractions, where the extinction effect is much smaller compared to that of the former one. The correct evaluation of pole-density values in low-index crystal directions was performed allowing for secondary extinction. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.