An X-Ray Diffraction Study of Au Thin Film Microstructures by Scherrer Equation and Strain Size Plot Methods

Abstract

The X-ray diffraction technique is an easy and powerful tool for investigating the crystal structure of nanocrystalline bulk materials, which play a key role in a wide range of potential applications. In this paper, Au thin films were deposited by the radio frequency sputtering method onto Si substrates and then were characterized using the X-ray diffraction technique (XRD). The XRD patterns confirmed the crystallinity of Au thin films with FCC structure. The peak broadening analysis was applied to estimate the microstructural properties, including crystallite sizes and lattice strains, using Debye Scherrer equation-based methods, including linear straight-line, linear straight-line passing through the origin, and the average size of the crystal. In addition, the Monshi–Scherrer equation model and the size strain plot (SSP) method were also used. The obtained findings showed that the estimated crystalline size of the Au thin films by the proposed models was highly intercorrelated. The microstructural parameters evaluated from the suggested methods were compared with previously published HR-TEM, AFM, and SEM results. Apart from the linear straight-line model of the Scherrer equation, all results of the crystallite size for deposited thin films were accurate with significant agreement to previously published TEM data.