Texture dependent twin formation in nanocrystalline thin Pd films

Nanocrystalline palladium films were produced by electron-beam evaporation and sputter deposition. The electron-beam evaporated films reveal randomly oriented nanograins with a relatively high density of growth twins, unexpected in view of the high stacking fault energy of Pd. In contrast, sputter deposited films show a clear crystallographic textured nanostructure without twins. These results provide insightful information to guide the generation of microstructures with enhanced strength/ductility balance in high stacking fault energy nanocrystalline metallic thin films