Epitaxial growth of La-Ca-Mn-O thin film on out-of-plane twinned LaAlO3

Abstract

La-Ca-Mn-O (LCMO) thin film with 145 nm thickness was epitaxially grown on a LaAlO3(100) substrate using radio frequency (rf) magnetron sputtering. The crystalline structure of the LCMO thin film on LaAlO3(LAO) was characterized using backscattering (BS)/channeling and four-circle x-ray diffractometer. LCMO thin film grown at 600 degrees C and rf power level of 100 W shows the full width sit half maximum of 0.311 degrees in the x-ray diffraction (XRD) theta-rocking curve for the LCMO (200) peak. Such a large value, however, is inconsistent with the very small BS/channeling minimum channeling yield (chi(min)) 4.98%. Thus, the origin of this discrepancy between the results is examined. In channeling angular scans of [001] and [011] axial direction in the (100) plane for the LCMO film on the LAO substrate, only the [011] direction showed an angular scan difference by 1.12 degrees. In addition, it can be observed that the substrate intrinsically has the out-of-plane twin structure from the high-resolution XRD theta rocking on the LaAlO3(200) peak. From earlier results, it can be concluded the film; with only the strained layer was epitaxially grown on the out-of-plane twinned substrate. (C) 2000 American Vacuum Society. [S0734-2101(00)04405-5].