Search

Metal-Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) has been applied to the fabrication of lanthanum cobaltite (LaCoO 3 ) films on MgO (001) and LaAlO 3 (001) substrates. The films have been deposited using a multi-metal source, consisting of the La (hfa) 3 •diglyme and Co (tta) 2 •tmeda (H-hfa = 1,1,1,5,5,5-hexafluoro-2,4-pentanedione; diglyme = CH 3 O-(CH 2 CH 2 O) 2 CH 3 , Htta = α-thenoyltrifluoroacetone; tmeda = N,N,N′,N′-tetramethyl-ethylendiammine) precursor mixture. Structural and morphological characterization of films, carried out using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), proved the present MOCVD approach a suitable effective route for the growth of pure LaCoO 3 films. Composition and purity has been assessed through energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses.

Metal-Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) has been applied to the fabrication of BiFeO 3 on dielectric SrTiO 3 and conducting SrTiO 3 :Nb (100) substrates. Films have been deposited using a mixed bi-metallic source, consisting of Bi(phenyl) 3 and Fe(tmhd) 3 , (phenyl = -C 6 H 5, H-tmhd = 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-3,5-heptandione) precursor mixture. The chemical, structural and morphological characterizations of films have been carried out by energy dispersive X-ray analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). Local piezoelectric properties have been investigated by piezoresponce force microscopy (PFM) and piezoelectric force spectroscopy (PFS). Structural and morphological characterizations point to the formation of homogeneous and flat surfaces for BiFeO 3 films. Different ferroelectric/piezoelectric domains have been observed depending on the structure/morphology of the samples.