No Arabic abstract
The crystal structures of LaAlO3 films grown by pulsed laser deposition on SrTiO3 substrates at oxygen pressure of 10-3 mbar or 10-5 mbar, where kinetics of ablated species hardly depend on oxygen background pressure, are compared. Our results show that the interface between LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 is sharper when the oxygen pressure is lower. Over time, the formation of various crystalline phases is observed while the crystalline thickness of the LaAlO3 layer remains unchanged. X-ray scattering as well as atomic force microscopy measurements indicate three-dimensional growth of such phases, which appear to be fed from an amorphous capping layer present in as-grown samples.
Superconducting epitaxial FeSe0.5Te0.5 thin films were prepared on SrTiO3 (001) substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The high purity of the phase, the quality of the growth and the epitaxy were studied with different experimental techniques: X-rays diffraction, reflection high energy electron diffraction, scanning tunnelling microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The substrate temperature during the deposition was found to be the main parameter governing sample morphology and superconducting critical temperature. Films obtained in the optimal conditions show an epitaxial growth with c axis perpendicular to the film surface and the a and b axis parallel to the substrates one, without the evidence of any other orientation. Moreover, such films show a metallic behavior over the whole measured temperature range and critical temperature above 17K, which is higher than the target one.
In this paper, we report the growth of NaxCoO2 thin films by pulsed-laser deposition (PLD). It is shown that the concentration of sodium is very sensitive to the substrate temperature and the target-substrate distance due to the evaporation of sodium during the deposition. alpha prime-phase Na0.75CoO2 and gamma- phase Na0.71CoO2 thin films can be obtained with different conditions. Correspondingly, the surface morphology of the films changes from flake-like to particle-like. The temperature dependence of resistivity for the films prepared with the optimal condition shows metallic behavior, consistent with the data of NaxCoO2 single crystals. This work demonstrates that PLD is a promising technique to get high quality NaxCoO2 thin films.
Pulsed laser deposition of SrTiO3/LaGaO3 and SrTiO3/LaAlO3 interfaces has been analyzed with a focus on the kinetic energy of the ablated species. LaGaO3 and LaAlO3 plasma plumes were studied by fast photography and space-resolved optical emission spectroscopy. Reflection high energy electron diffraction was performed proving a layer-by-layer growth up to 10-1 mbar oxygen pressure. The role of the energetic plasma plume on the two-dimensional growth and the presence of interfacial defects at different oxygen growth pressure has been discussed in view of the conducting properties developing at such polar/non-polar interfaces.
Thin films of the misfit cobaltite Ca3Co4O9 were grown on (0001)-oriented (c-cut) sapphire substrates, using the pulsed-laser deposition techniques. The dependence of the thermoelectric/transport properties on the film growth conditions was investigated
Heteroepitaxial superlattices of [YBa2Cu3O7(n)/ La0.67Ca0.33MnO3(m)]x, where n and m are the number of YBCO and LCMO monolayers and x the number of bilayer repetitions, have been grown with pulsed laser deposition on NdGaO3 (110) and Sr0.7La0.3Al0.65Ta0.35O3 (LSAT) (001). These substrates are well lattice matched with YBCO and LCMO and, unlike the commonly used SrTiO3, they do not give rise to complex and uncontrolled strain effects due to structural transitions at low temperature. The growth dynamics and the structure have been studied in-situ with reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) and ex-situ with scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), x-ray diffraction, and neutron reflectometry. The individual layers are found to be flat and continuous over long lateral distances with sharp and coherent interfaces and with a well-defined thickness of the individual layer. The only visible defects are antiphase boundaries in the YBCO layers that originate from perovskite unit cell height steps at the interfaces with the LCMO layers. We also find that the first YBCO monolayer at the interface with LCMO has an unusual growth dynamics and is lacking the CuO chain layer while the subsequent YBCO layers have the regular Y-123 structure. Accordingly, the CuO2 bilayers at both the LCMO/YBCO and the YBCO/LCMO interfaces are lacking one of their neighboring CuO chain layers and thus half of their hole doping reservoir. Nevertheless, from electric transport measurements on asuperlattice with n=2 we obtain evidence that the interfacial CuO2 bilayers remain conducting and even exhibit the onset of a superconducting transition at very low temperature. Finally, we show from dc magnetization and neutron reflectometry measurements that the LCMO layers are strongly ferromagnetic.