Fabrication of PbTiO3 thin films by laser metallorganic chemical vapor deposition

PbTiO3 thin films were fabricated from their parent metallorganic compounds, (C2H5)3PbOCH2C(CH3)3 and Ti(O-iC3H7)4, by using a laser metallorganic chemical vapor deposition method with and without heating substrates. When the films were fabricated on Pt(100)/MgO(100) substrates heated to 773 K, irradiation from an ArF laser enhanced c-axis orientation of the films. This may result from the temperature rise of substrate surface by laser irradiation. In room temperature deposition of the films on MgO(100) substrates, the metallorganic compounds were alternately introduced into the reactor aiming at layer by layer deposition of PbO and TiO2 films. Although oxide films with stoichiometric composition of Pb and Ti were obtained even at room temperature, no crystalline structure was observed without thermally annealing the films after deposition. The annealed films had lattice constants of 0.393 nm for a-axis and 0.399 nm for c-axis. These values are close to those of the cubic structure.