Crystal growth of epitaxially grown PbTiO 3 thin films on miscut SrTiO 3 substrate

Abstract

Thin films of (001)PbTiO 3 (PT), 5–260 nm thickness, were grown by sputtering on miscut (001)SrTiO 3 (ST) substrate with miscut angle of 1.7° at 600°C. Although the sputtered PT thin films were deformed by the two dimensional compressive force due to the small lattice of ST substrate and showed large tetragonality of c/ a=1.1 at RT, i.e. c/ a=1.06 for bulk PT, the PT thin films showed a single domain–single crystal perovskite structure through a large area with extremely smooth surface on an atomic scale. The film growth was governed by a step-flow model showing a layer growth. It was found that the layer growth was stable at low oxygen partial pressure during the sputtering deposition.