Abstract:
The grain growth kinetics of nanocrystalline copper thin film samples was investigated. The grain size of nanocrystalline copper samples was determined from the broadening of X-ray spectra. It was found that the grain size increased linearly with isothermal annealing time within the first 10 minutes, beyond which power-law growth kinetics is applied. The activation energy for grain growth was determined by constructing an Arrhenius plot, which shows an activation energy of about 21 – 30 kJ/mol. The low activation energy is attributed to the second phase particle drag and the porosity drag, which act as the pinning force for grain growth in nanocrystalline copper.