Nanocrystalline thin films have been widely used for many applications and their microstructure and mechanical property studies have been a focal point for the developments in the field of materials science and engineering. Recent literature shows that nanocrystalline copper can have good combination of mechanical and electric properties. This work as an attempt to systematically study and then understand the processing-microstructure-property relationship of nanocrystalline metallic thin films. In the present work, nanocrystalline copper thin films have been prepared using electrodeposition method. A high purity copper was set as anode and the cathode a steel. Both constant current and pulsed current at different levels have been used in order to evaluate the effect of current density on the microstructure and hence mechanical performance of the coatings. SEM and X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique have been used to characterise the deposited thin films. Preferential orientations of the films were studied using XRD. The orientation index, as evaluated using Harris method, shows a strong {220} texture with orientation index ~2, which differs from the preferred {111} texture reported on copper thin films deposited in a similar procedure in the literature. The grain sizes of the nanocrystalline copper have been evaluated using both the Scherrer method as well as the direct measurement using TEM. The relationship between processing (deposition parameters) and microstructure will be discussed and this serves to explain the mechanical properties measured using depth-sensing nanoindentation tests.

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