Flux-mediated epitaxy for ferroelectric Bi4Ti3O12 single crystal film growth

We propose the “Flux-mediated epitaxy” as a novel concept for the growth of single crystalline films of incongruent, volatile, and high-temperature-melting compounds. In flux-mediated eptitaxy, by supplying materials precursors from the gas phase through the liquid flux films pre-deposited on the substrate, a quasi-thermodynamic equilibrium condition is obtained at the interface between the growing films and the flux films. This process has been demonstrated in this paper by fabricating ferroelectric Bi4Ti3O12 films, which has volatile Bi oxide.