Texture modification of wurtzite piezoelectric films by ion beam irradiation

Texture modification of wurtzite films in ion beam assisted deposition was investigated. Unusual (11 2 ¯ 0) texture formation appeared in the ZnO and AlN films prepared by grazing ion beam sputtering. Such a (11 2 ¯ 0) texture formation was also observed even in the ZnO film deposited under argon ion beam irradiation. Mechanism of the formation probably relates to physical interaction between energetic particle irradiation and wurtzite structure, for example, sputtering, collision etc. Pole figure analysis and SEM image revealed that crystal grains in the films have strong out-of plane and in-plane orientation (have biaxial texture) and in-plane c-axis direction corresponds to incident ion beam direction.