Ion-beam-assisted deposition of Al films with strong preferential orientation

Preferential crystal orientation of Al films deposited under simultaneous argon-ion irradiation has been investigated by changing both the ion-to-atom arrival rate ratio (ion-atom ratio) and the ion energy. The intensity of the <111> reflection, I(111), obtained from X-ray diffraction shows a drastic increase with ion irradiation, although the effect on other reflection peaks such as I(200) is only slight. The intensity ratio I(111)/I(200), a parameter for the electromigration resistance of Al films, has shown the highest value at a certain optimum ion-atom ratio. This optimum ion-atom ratio for each ion energy is found to shift toward lower values with increasing ion energy. Under the optimum conditions, the average ion energy per neutral atom after cascade collisions is found to be about 1.2 eV irrespective of the primary ion energy, which is comparable with the energy for the self-diffusion of Al (1.4 eV). The electrical measurements have shown that the resistivity of Al films increases considerably with simultaneous ion irradiation, however, it recovers to a level comparable with that of unassisted films by annealing at 400degC. (orig.)