Role of beam divergence and ion-to-molecule flux ratio in ion-beam-assisted deposition texturing of MgO

Abstract

The effect of process conditions on the biaxial texture of MgO films grown by ion-beam-assisted deposition (IBAD) was studied. The texture showed a strong dependence on the Ar+/MgO flux ratio, but a weak dependence on the divergence of Ar+ beam. One hundred-nanometer-thick epi-MgO on less than 10-nm-thick textured IBAD-MgO films that were grown on 7-nm-thick Y2O3 layers on fused silica, metal alloy tape, and polished Si substrates showed biaxial texture with in- and out-of-plane orientation distributions of less than 4° and 2°, respectively. These results strengthen the notion that the IBAD technique could serve as a universal technological process to integrate amorphous and polycrystalline substrates with various oxide and semiconductor films that need to be grown with good biaxial texture.