Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 February 2011
Secondary grain growth in thin Au films on SiO2 substrates with periodic surface relief structures was studied as a model for the application of graphoepitaxy (the growth of orientated crystalline films through the use of artificial surface patterning). Secondary grain growth driven by sur-face energy anisotropy produces grains many times larger than the film thickness with uniform texture. In thin films of Au on SiO2, surface-energy- driven secondary grain growth was found to occur at room temperature as soon as the film becomes continuous, and was shown to be responsible for the {111} deposition texture. A square-wave-profile grating of 0.2 μm period, etched into the surface of the substrate, resulted in preferred growth of {111}-textured grains with <112> directions oriented parallel to the grating axis. It is proposed that surface energy minimization is responsible for this phenomenon.