Preferential growth orientations of CuCrO2 films grown by pulsed laser deposition

Abstract

We reported the investigation of the preferential growth orientations of CuCrO2 films on different substrates of (0001) Al2O3, (100) YSZ, and (100) SrTiO3 grown by pulsed laser deposition. The epitaxial thin films were grown at 700 °C with the oxygen pressure of 10 mTorr. The c-axis preferred orientation of the CuCrO2 films was observed on (000l) Al2O3 and (100) YSZ substrate. However, the CuCrO2 films on the (100) SrTiO3 substrates were oriented perpendicular to (01–15). The six-fold and twelve-fold rotational symmetry in pole figure from (01–12) of CuCrO2 films were appeared at χ = 73° using (0001) Al2O3 and (100) YSZ, respectively. The four-fold rotational symmetry points at χ = 53° were observed from the (0006) plane of CuCrO2 on (100) SrTiO3 substrate. The preferential growth orientation and epitaxial relationship of CuCrO2 films on the different substrates were explained by the lattice mismatch, surface energy, and the surface arrangement of the cation and anion.