The growth of TixAly-alloy films was investigated by measuring the film stress during as well as after the film deposition under UHV-conditions with a cantilever beam technique. The alloy films were deposited on alumina substrates from two separate evaporation sources. The substrate temperature was varied from room temperature to 500°C and the alloy stoichiometry from Ti25Al75 to Ti75Al25.

At a substrate temperature of 200°C the dependence of the growth stress of the alloy film on stoichiometry is pronounced and varies from tensile stress in the case of titanium rich alloy-films to compressive stress in aluminium rich films. The stress changes after deposition at 200°C are negligible for titanium rich alloys but in the case of aluminium rich alloys small tensile stress changes are measured.

At a substrate temperature of 500°C the film stress is compressive and the dependence on stoichiometry is rather small. The stress vs. thickness curves of Ti25Al75-films, however, show unexpected oscillations during growth while at lower aluminum content stable stress curves are measured. The stress changes after deposition are large in each case, interpreted to indicate film recrystallisation and/or continued alloy formation.

In a second series of experiments we have measured the internal stress changes in Ti25Al75-alloy films during annealing. It can be shown that the changes in the film stress can be correlated with changes in the film microstructure seen in the electron microscope (TEM).