Texture development in polycrystalline thin films

The distribution of crystallographic orientations of the grains in a polycrystalline film can evolve through a number of kinetic processes. Orientation evolution can occur before, during and after coalescence of islands to form a continuous film, during thickening of a film, and during post-deposition annealing. The energetic constraints leading to texture selection include surface and interface energy minimization, as well as strain-energy minimization. The final texture of a film depends on which texture-selection mechanisms and driving forces dominate, and is different for different films, substrates, and deposition conditions.