Abstract
The growth of -quartz-based piezoelectric thin films opens the door to higher-frequency electromechanical devices than those available through top-down approaches. We report on the growth of SiO/GeO thin films by pulsed laser deposition and their subsequent crystallization. By introducing a devitrifying agent uniformly within the film, we are able to obtain the -quartz phase in the form of platelets with lateral sizes above 100 μm at accessible temperatures. Films containing different amounts of devitrifying agent are investigated, and their crystallinity is ascertained with X-ray diffraction and electron back-scatter diffraction. Our work highlights the difficulty in crystallization when competing phases arise that have markedly different crystalline orientation.
Highlights
Nanomaterials 2021, 11, 1654. https://α-Quartz is a well-known piezoelectric phase of SiO2, composed of abundant, inexpensive, and nontoxic elements
These often start with the hydrothermal synthesis of macroscopic quartz crystals, which has not evolved much in the recent decades [4,5,6]
The 0% samples were grown as a control experiment
Summary
Α-Quartz is a well-known piezoelectric phase of SiO2 , composed of abundant, inexpensive, and nontoxic elements It finds use in several electromechanical devices, including resonators [1] in oscillator circuits and quartz crystal microbalances [2]. The highest frequencies that can be attained when using a quartz resonator as a frequency standard are limited by current industrial top-down methods of quartz production [3]. These often start with the hydrothermal synthesis of macroscopic quartz crystals, which has not evolved much in the recent decades [4,5,6]. In the last two decades, this has been pushed to the sub-micron range, achieving resonance frequencies in the GHz regime [7,8]
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