Growth of highly-oriented CaCu3Ti4O12 thin films on SrTiO3 (100) substrates by a chemical solution route

Highly-oriented CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO) thin films deposited directly on SrTiO3 (100) substrates have been developed successfully using a chemical solution coating method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were employed to characterize the structure and the morphology. It was observed that the CCTO thin films had the 1 mu m x 1 mu m domain-like microstructure that consists of compact grains of about 0.1 mu m in size. The cross sectional SEM image shows that the CCTO grains grow regularly close to the clear interface between the CCTO film and the SrTiO3 substrate. The result was discussed in terms of lattice mismatch between CCTO and SrTiO3. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.