Effect of substrate temperature on the texture of MgO films grown by ion beam assisteddeposition

Abstract

In this paper, the role of substrate temperature in the crystalline textureof MgO films grown by ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) is investigated.This study reveals that the best in-plane alignment for MgO films grown onY2O3/Si isobtained at ∼25 °C. At this temperature, MgO films with an in-plane orientation distribution as low as3.7° fullwidth at half maximum (FWHM) have been attained. MgO films deposited at temperatures higherthan 100 °C have broad in-plane alignment. Although the deposition at the lowest temperature(−150 °C) did not improve the in-plane texture, the acceptable deviation from the optimum ion tomolecule ratio for achieving biaxially textured films was the largest. As a trend, theacceptable ion to molecule deviation decreases with increasing substrate temperature. Thisstudy is especially important for continuous IBAD MgO depositions where less restrictiveconditions are desired.