Irradiation-induced texture variations and atomic displacements in Au and NbN layers

Irradiation of Au and NbN sputtered layers with 600 keV Ar^{2 +} ions leads to a reduced orientation distribution of the [111] direction of the Au layers from a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the orientation distribution of 12° to a FWHM of 6° and to only very small FWHM changes in the texture distributions of the NbN layers. However, the FWHM of the distribution of the reflections of the irradiated NbN layers is increased significantly from Δθ = 0.65 to 1.17° for one sample position. This is caused by small atomic displacements in the NbN lattice. The FWHM of the reflection distribution of the Au layers increased from Δθ = 0.60 to 0.65° after irradiation. Oblique incidence of Ar^{2 +} ions causes, by absence of channeling, stronger distortions than perpendicular incidence.