Residual Stress in Nickel Films Evaporated at Oblique Incidence

抄録

The residual stress is examined by analyzing the magnetic anisotropy, and its association with the columnar grain structure is discussed. It is shown that there exists a close correlation between the changes in the residual stress and the electrical resistivity during annealing, and that the magnitude of the residual stress is roughly proportional to the volume fraction of the grain boundary region. These results suggest that the residual stress is related to the structural defects in the grain boundary region. The recovery process of the magnetic anisotropy is composed of two stages with activation energies of 1.2 and 2.0 eV, which are associated with the stress relief and the grain growth, respectively. The stress relief occurs by grain boundary diffusion.