Single crystal like thin films by selective ion-induced grain growth

The reliability of microelectronic devices is critically affected by the texture of the thin films. It has been demonstrated that ion bombardment during film growth, a process known as ion beam assisted deposition, is an effective tool for texture control. In particular, the use of two beams allows selection of both the in-plane and the out-of-plane texture. In this paper we show that post-deposition ion bombardment of strongly (111)-fiber textured An films leads to the preferred growth of a single orientation, thus proving that single crystalline thin films can be fabricated without the use of molecular beam epitaxy technologies. (c) 2006 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.