THICKNESS DEPENDENCE OF MORPHOLOGY IN La2/3Ca1/3MnO3 THIN FILMS

Abstract

La2/3Ca1/3MnO3 (LCMO) thin films with the thickness from 4 nm to 50 nm were fabricated by the off-axis magnetron sputtering technique. Single crystal (001) SrTiO3 (STO), (0001) sapphire (ALO), and (001) yttrium-stabilized ZrO2 (YSZ) were used as substrates. The surface morphology of thin films was characterized by atomic force microscope (AFM). The surface morphology of the thin films depends on the thickness. Thin films on STO substrates with the thickness less than 20 nm show a wave-like morphology, which indicates a two-dimension growth mode. With the thickness increases, some cracks and grains appear on the surface, which indicates the release of the lattice strain due to the lattice mismatch between the substrate and the films. The morphology became smoother with the thickness more than 30 nm, which indicates the full relaxation in strain for the film. The surface roughness and the average grain size increase with the thickness. The morphology for LCMO grows on ALO and YSZ show a rougher surface than that on STO. The rough surface morphology may indicate the wide metallic-to-insulating transition in transport properties.