Thin biaxially textured MgO and TiN films prepared by ion-beam assisted pulsed laser deposition for coated conductor applications

Thin MgO and TiN films have been grown using ion-beam assisted pulsed laser deposition on amorphous substrates. The texture development was analysed using an in situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED). Above 250 °C, a sharp cube textured nucleation layer was observed in both materials using an ion beam with an energy of 800 eV under an angle of 45° relative to the substrate normal. The cube texture is not stable during further ion-beam assisted growth but could be preserved using homoepitaxial growth at higher temperatures. Resulting films revealed an out-of-plane orientation of about 6° and in-plane orientations of less than 13°. MgO and TiN showed close similarities in the texture development, i.e., the texturing was taken place within the first nanometres during nucleation. The observed texture development can be explained through a combination of overall energy minimization and anisotropic sputter rates. Highly textured YBCO layers were grown on these templates using additional buffer layers.