Crystallographic Orientation Control of NanoCrystals Formed by FIB under a Bending Strain

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>The application of nanocrystalline material for data-storage applications requires control over the in-plane and out –of-plane NanoCrystal (NC) orientation. In order to attempt to control the out-of-plane orientation of NCs introduced by the irradiation of Ni-P material with Ga<jats:sup>+</jats:sup> ions, this processing has been completed upon material under tensile and compressive strains. The orientations of NCs nucleated have been compared to those introduced into the same material without the application of an external strain. Samples introduced under no external strain have previously been shown to be oriented with <111> parallel to the irradiated plane normal and <110> parallel to the irradiation direction. In this work, NCs nucleated under tensile strains in excess of ≈2 × 10<jats:sup>-3</jats:sup> have been oriented with <112> parallel to the irradiated plane normal and <111> parallel to the applied stress direction, although <110> is still parallel to the irradiation direction. NCs formed under tensile strains lower than this critical value, as well as those formed under the compressive strain values tested, have been formed in the same orientation as those formed without the application of an external strain.</jats:p>