Low energy ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) was employed to prepare Ag films on Mo/Si (100) substrate. It was found that Ag films deposited by sputtering method without ion beam bombardment were preferred (111) orientation. When the depositing film was simultaneously bombardment by Ar+ beam perpendicular to the film surface at ion/atom arrival ratio of 0.18, the prepared films exhibited weak (111) and (200) mixed orientations. When the direction of Ar+ beam was off-normal direction of the film surface, Ag films showed highly preferred (111) orientation. Monte Carlo method was used to calculate the sputtering yields of Ar+ ions at various incident and azimuth angles. The effects of channeling and surface free energy on the crystallographic orientation of Ag films were discussed. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.