The reliability of a substrate curvature-based stress measurement method for CrN thin films on substrate with fluctuant surface was discussed. The stress error led by the ignorance of substrate thermal deformation was studied. Results showed that this error could be as large as several hundred MPa under general deposition conditions. Stress in the CrN thin films with different thicknesses ranging from 110 to 330 nm on stainless steel was studied by this method, in comparison with conventional results on silicon wafer. The thin films' morphology and structure were investigated and related to the film stress. A significant result of the comparison is that stress evolution in the thin films on steel obviously differs from that on silicon wafer, not only because the two substrates have different coefficients of thermal expansion, which provokes thermal stress, but also the considerable discrepancy in the thin films' grain coarsening rate and structure that induce different intrinsic stresses.
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