  The residual stress plays a vital role in determination of the device
performance that uses thin films coating and thus the accurate determination of
stress and its optimization with process parameters is an ongoing research work
for many decades. In line with this, the microscopic origin of the stress at
the atomic scale and its development during the thin film deposition is a
matter of major scientific interests. The development of stress is a complex
phenomenon and has a complex dependence to process parameters, film
microstructure and its morphology. In this work, by utilizing a custom-designed
cathodic arc deposition system and synchrotron radiation based 2D x-ray
diffraction (XRD) technique, we determine the real-time evolution of stress,
crystallite sizes and their preferential orientations of
Aluminum-Titanium-Nitride (AlxTi1-xN) films with varied Al-content (x=0.0,
0.25, 0.50, and 0.67) on Si-100 substrate. The energies of incoming ions and
hence stress in the films is tuned by applying different direct current
substrate bias (Vs = floating potential, -20, -40, -60, -80, and -100 V). The
instantaneous stress is evaluated by the well-known d vs. sin2{\psi} technique,
while crystallite sizes are determined by analyzing line profiles of x-ray
diffractograms. The evolution of stress and crystallite sizes are modelled with
multiple numerical models from which kinetic parameters associated with the
thin film depositions are extracted. The ex-situ microstructure
characterizations of AlxTi1-xN coatings are carried out by scanning electron
microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The formation of
ex-situ microstructure of the films is discussed considering the results
obtained from in-situ XRD data. Finally, we demonstrate that the method
utilized here is a powerful approach towards estimation of the fracture
toughness of thin film coatings.
