Epitaxial growth and crystallographic analyses of (Pb, La)TiO3 thin films by a multi-ion-beam reactive cosputtering technique

Abstract

Epitaxial thin films of lead titanate(PbTiO₃) and lanthanium‐modified lead titanate [(Pb, La)TiO₃] have been successfully grown on (0001) sapphire substrates for the first time by the recently developed multi‐ion‐beam reactive cosputtering (MIBRECS) technique. The deposition processes and the thin‐film analyses studied by x‐ray diffraction (XRD), electron probe x‐ray microanalyzer (EPMA), and reflection high‐energy electron diffraction (RHEED) are reported. The experiments show that the multi‐ion‐beam reactive cosputtering process is very suitable for deposition of multicomponent oxide thin films with high reproducibility.