Low temperature growth of epitaxial La0.5Sr0.5CoO3 films on (100)SrTiO3 by pulsed laser deposition

Perovskite conductive La0.5Sr0.5CoO3 (LSCO) thin films were grown in situ on (100)SrTiO3 by pulsed laser deposition at 400, 450 and 500 degrees C. Heterostructures of Pb(Zr0.54Ti0.46)O-3/LSCO and YBa2Cu3O7-x/LSCO were also prepared in situ on the same substrates, where the LSCO layers were deposited at 500 degrees C. All the films were characterized structurally by X-ray diffraction in both Bragg-Brentano and four-circle geometry. A cube-on-cube growth of the bilayers as well as the LSCO film grown at 500 degrees C confirmed that LSCO can be grown epitaxially on the lattice-matched single crystal substrate at a temperature as low as 500 degrees C, which is well compatible with existing Si process technology. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.