Surface step terrace tuned microstructures and dielectric properties of highly epitaxial CaCu₃Ti₄O₁₂ thin films on vicinal LaAlO₃ substrates.

ABSTRACT: Controllable interfacial strain can manipulate the physical properties of epitaxial films and help understand the physical nature of the correlation between the properties and the atomic microstructures. By using a proper design of vicinal single-crystal substrate, the interface strain in epitaxial thin films can be well controlled by adjusting the miscut angle via a surface-step-terrace matching growth mode. Here, we demonstrate that LaAlO₃ (LAO) substrates with various miscut angles of 1.0°, 2.75°, and 5.0° were used to tune the dielectric properties of epitaxial CaCu₃Ti₄O₁₂ (CCTO) thin films. A model of coexistent compressive and tensile strained domains is proposed to understand the epitaxial nature. Our findings on the self-tuning of the com

SUBMITTER: Yao G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5050425 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature