In situ reflection high energy electron diffraction surface pole figure study of biaxial texture evolution in anisotropic Mg nanoblades during shadowing growth

The reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) surface pole figure technique has been applied to an in situ study of the biaxial texture evolution in the anisotropic film of Mg nanoblades. These nanoblades were grown by thermal vapor under the shadowing effect using oblique angle deposition. To compensate for the effects of the anisotropic morphology of the Mg film on the RHEED surface pole figure, a method of intensity normalization has been employed. From the normalized pole figures, we observed a development of (101¯0)[0001] biaxial texture in the film during the growth. When the film grows thicker the texture axes tilt more towards the incident vapor flux. The variation of the azimuthal angle orientation is mainly around the [0001] axis during growth and the azimuthal dispersion angle around the [0001] axis reduces. The change of texture axis tilting angle has been correlated to the change of the nanoblade tilting angle. The azimuthal angle alignment of the nanoblades is argued to be the result of maximizing the vapor flux capture cross section by nanoblades during the growth.