Determining the preferred orientation of silver-plating via x-ray diffraction profile

Abstract

Determining the preferred orientation of plating film is of practical importance. In this work, the Rietveld method and quantitative texture analysis (RM + QTA) are used to analyze the preferred orientation of plating silver film with XRD profile, whose <311> axial texture can be completely described by a set of exponential harmonics index, extracted from a single XRD profile, C41,1 (0.609), C61,1 (0.278), C81,1 (−0.970). The constructed pole figures with the index of the exponential harmonic are following those measured by the multi-axis diffractometer. The method using exponential harmonic index can be extended to characterize the plating by electroplating in a quantitative harmonic description. In addition, a new dimension involving crystallite shape and size is considered in characterizing the preferred orientation.