Lattice Guiding for Low Temperature Crystallization of Rhombohedral Perovskite-Structured Oxide Thin Films

Low temperature crystallization of complex oxide thin films has proved to be a challenge with deposition of such materials often carried out at elevated temperatures in excess of 600 degrees C. This article demonstrates one of the first instances of deposition of preferentially oriented strontium-doped lead zirconate titanate thin films at a relatively low temperature of 300 degrees C. This was achieved by carrying out deposition on gold-coated silicon substrates which exert a guiding influence on thin film growth due to similarity in lattice parameters, The microstructure and preferential orientations were studied using high resolution transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. These results illustrated the pronounced texture in the deposited thin films due to lattice guiding, with crystal structure simulations also verifying the guiding effect.