Issues associated with the analysis and acquisition of thin-film grain size data

Reliable quantification of microstructural parameters via microscopy is of primary importance for the optimization of materials properties, especially for thin films such as those used in microelectronics or magnetic storage applications. Thus, we present a grain-size analysis for an Al thin-film mi crostructure consisting of the order of 10(4) grains for the purpose of exa mining the predictions of various grain growth models. The microstructural information was acquired with a recently developed automated grain recognit ion methodology, and the relatively large population obtained here permits a meaningful comparison of tabulated grain-size distributions with those in herent in theoretical models. Finally, we consider the role of grain identi fication criteria in determining grain-size distributions. (C) 1999 Elsevie r Science B.V. All rights reserved.