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

In this paper, the role of substrate temperature in the crystalline texture of MgO films grown by ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) is investigated. This study reveals that the best in-plane alignment for MgO films grown on Y 2 O 3 /Si is obtained at ∼25 °C. At this temperature, MgO films with an in-plane orientation distribution as low as 3.7° full width at half maximum (FWHM) have been attained. MgO films deposited at temperatures higher than 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 to molecule ratio for achieving biaxially textured films was the largest. As a trend, the acceptable ion to molecule deviation decreases with increasing substrate temperature. This study is especially important for continuous IBAD MgO depositions where less restrictive conditions are desired.