Growth of giant grains in silver thin films

Three regimes of behavior were observed in thin silver films annealed between 400 and 800 °C, depending on the film thickness: for thicknesses up to 0.6 μm, grain growth was controlled by surface energy minimization, resulting in a 〈111〉 texture and small grains; for thicknesses between 1.0 and 1.5 μm, strain energy minimization came into play, resulting in the abnormal growth of 〈001〉 oriented grains with a bimodal final grain size distribution; and in the third regime, a very limited number of grains grew to coalescence, leading to a very large final grain size and a transformation of the film texture from a strong 〈111〉 texture to a very strong 〈001〉 texture.