Texture Controlled Grain Growth in Thin Films Studied by 3D Potts Model

Thin films have numerous applications in optics, mechanics, and electricity, where the grain microstructure and the corresponding crystallography are key factors influencing materials properties as well as coarsening kinetics. However, even today this problem is often tackled by 2D means of treating thin films as quasi-2D objects. In the present work, it is shown by modified 3D Potts model simulations that not only is the third dimension non-negligible, but also how texture changes the growth kinetics, when the percentage of low angle grain boundaries varies systematically.