TEM and AFM study of perovskite conductive LaNiO3 films prepared by metalorganic decomposition

Perovskite conductive LaNiO3 (LNO) films were prepared by metalorganic decomposition. The films were obtained by spin-on pyrolysis on NaCl and SrTiO3(STO) substrates and then annealing at various temperature. The effect of different thermal treatments and annealing temperature on crystallinity, orientation and surface morphology of LNO films was studied. The results obtained by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED) and X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS) indicated that in the thermal treatment process the oxygen diffusion into the film is the critical step in the fabrication of good metallic LNO films at lower growth temperature. Epitaxial LNO films could be fabricated on STO. The surface morphology of LNO film on STO including the film roughness was recorded by atomic force microscopy (AFM). (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.