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RF Sputter Deposition of Epitaxial Nanocrystalline Nd1-xSrxCoO3 Thin Films

Lorenzo Malavasi·Eliana Quartarone·Carla Sanna·Nathascia Lampis·Alessandra Geddo Lehmann·Cristina Tealdi·Maria Cristina Mozzati·Giorgio Flor
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Abstract

In this paper we report the deposition of epitaxial thin films of Nd1-xSrxCoO3 with x=0, 0.2 and 0.5 on single crystalline substrates (SrTiO3 and LaAlO3) carried out by means of rf-magnetron sputtering. The deposited films are all completely oriented and epitaxial and characterized by a nanocrystalline morphology. As-deposited films have an average roughness around 1 nm while after the thermal treatment this increases up to 20 nm while preserving the nanocrystalline morphology. All the films deposited on SrTiO3 have shown to be under a certain degree of tensile strain while those on the LaAlO3 experience a compressive strain thus suggesting that at about 50 nm the films are not fully relaxed, even after the thermal treatment. For the x=0.2 composition three different thickness have been investigated revealing an increased strain for the thinner films.

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Lorenzo Malavasi, Eliana Quartarone, Carla Sanna, Nathascia Lampis, Alessandra Geddo Lehmann, Cristina Tealdi, Maria Cristina Mozzati, Giorgio Flor. 2006-07-23. RF Sputter Deposition of Epitaxial Nanocrystalline Nd1-xSrxCoO3 Thin Films. https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0607584

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