Abstract
An experimental study was conducted on controlling the growth mode of La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 thin films on SrTiO3 substrates using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) by tuning growth temperature, pressure, and laser fluence. Different thin film morphology, crystallinity, and stoichiometry have been observed depending on growth parameters. To understand the microscopic origin, the adatom nucleation, step advance processes, and their relationship to film growth were theoretically analyzed and a growth diagram was constructed. Three boundaries between highly and poorly crystallized growth, 2D and 3D growth, stoichiometric and non-stoichiometric growth were identified in the growth diagram. A good fit of our experimental observation with the growth diagram was found. This case study demonstrates that a more comprehensive understanding of the growth mode in PLD is possible.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 234301 |
| Journal | Journal of Applied Physics |
| Volume | 113 |
| Issue number | 23 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 21 2013 |
Funding
Research supported by the US Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences, and Engineering Division (P.C.S., T.Z.W., X.S.X.) and performed in part at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS) (Z.G., I.K.) User Facility, which are sponsored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy. We also acknowledge partial funding supports from the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) under Grant No. 2011CB921801 (J.S.), and the US DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences, the US DOE Grant No. DE-SC0002136 (H.W.G., W.B.W.).