Low-temperature properties of evaporated lead films

Abstract

Lead films have been deposited onto room-temperature substrates having low thermal expansion coefficients and the residual mechanical stresses present in these films have been determined as a function of film thickness and film purity. At room temperature no measurable stress (<5×107 dyncm2) was present in any film. At 78°and 4.2°K the stress was given by =+d, where is a constant dependent on temperature and d is the film thickness. A model involving surface pinning of dislocations predicts an equation of this form, but the experimental values for the stress were found to be appreciably larger than values calculated on the basis of bulk data. The experimental values were substantiated by superconducting critical temperature measurements on films of various thicknesses. Localized crystalline growth was observed in lead films after cooling to 4°K. The film material around these micron-size crystals exhibiting five- and sixfold rotational symmetry was thinned to the point that physical holes were evident in the thinner films. In addition, with repeated temperature cycling, extensive cross slip was observed. © 1963 The American Institute of Physics.