Measurement of thermally-induced strains in polycrystalline Al thin films on Si using convergent beam electron diffraction

Strains in polycrystalline Al films grown on oxidized Si wafers were measured using convergent beam electron diffraction (CBED). CBED patterns were acquired on a Zeiss EM 912 TEM equipped with an imaging energy filter and CCD camera. HOLZ line positions in the (000) CBED disk were matched using an automated refinement procedure. A sensitivity to variations in lattice parameter of approximately 0.00007 nm was obtained. Strong deviations from a simple equibiaxial strain, perfect [111] texture model were observed.