The effect of grazing incidence 4 key Ar+ ion irradiation on the early stage of Ag thin film growth on amorphous Si was investigated The double effect of axial and surface channeling resulted in grains oriented along the < 110 > axis in-plane while the (111) out-of-plane texture was maintained A slight average tilt of the (111) out-of-plane texture axis towards the ion beam direction is proposed to result from the difference between terrace and step edge sputtering yield The observed tilt is consistent with a minimum erosion orientation of the surface profile (C) 2010 Elsevier B V All rights reserved