Abstract: Biaxially textured MgO films were deposited on nontextured metal tapes via ion beam-assisted deposition (IBAD), and the effects of different ion beam energies on the biaxial texture and surface morphology of MgO were investigated. The results indicated that an increase in the ion energy in the range of 700∼1 000 eV contributed to the optimization of the texture quality of IBAD-MgO. Biaxially textured MgO films with an in-plane full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) ∆ϕ and out-of-plane FWHM ∆ω of 6^◦ and 2^◦, respectively, were obtained at 1 000 eV. In addition, the surface morphology of the MgO films did not differ significantly with an increase in the ion energy, and the root mean square (RMS) values of surface roughness (5 µm×5 µm) was in the range of 5∼6 nm. This study demonstrated that a higher Ar⁺ ion beam energy could improve the texture quality of IBAD-MgO films, which was important for the stable preparation of biaxially textured films.

Key words: ion beam-assisted deposition (IBAD), ion energy, biaxial texture