Gd thin films: relationship between elastic properties and microstructure

A set of gadolinium thin films was prepared over Si(100) substrates by DC-o perated planar magnetron sputtering deposition. This paper reports a change in the film texture by changing the sputtering working Ar gas pressure. An X-ray study of their structural properties shows that films have (0002) an d (1010) orientations. On the other hand, their elastic properties have bee n studied by Surface Brillouin Light Scattering spectroscopy that provides the velocity of the surface acoustic waves. A simulation that takes into ac count values of thin film density and elastic constants tensor identical to the corresponding for bulk gadolinium shows good agreement between theory and experiment for (0002)-textured samples. Nevertheless, (1010)-textured f ilms seem to have slightly different values of the elastic constant. (C) 20 01 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.