The objective of this work was to determine the mechanism of in-plane texture development in films made by ion-beam-assisted deposition (IBAD). Both in-plane texture and surface roughness were studied as functions of film thickness. A phenomenological growth model based on the preferential growth of aligned grains due to channeling was proposed, linking the surface roughness evolution and texture development. Good correlation was found between the measured roughness and the model prediction, as well as between the roughness evolution and the in-plane texture development. A critical thickness was introduced at which in-plane texture is completed. Both surface roughness and texture results gave a critical film thickness of ll4-250 nm fOr an ion energy of 1000 eV and an R ratio of 0.4. This range of critical film thickness was far beyond the nucleation stage, providing evidence that the development of in-plane texture in IBAD Nb films was growth-controlled.
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