Fabrication of chemical composition controlled YbFe2O4 epitaxial thin films

The crystal growth of YbFe2O4 requires oxidant-poor conditions, thus YbFe2O4 usually contains a large number of iron deficiencies even in the bulk single crystal. The use of an ArF laser for laser ablation is effective to reduce the amount of active oxygen species and a wide process window to form the YbFe2O4 epitaxial films becomes available. By using the widened process window and an iron-rich target, the chemical composition of the YbFe2O4 epitaxial thin films is successfully controlled. The effect of the iron composition on the charge ordering transition can be discussed using the nonlinear I–V behavior. The threshold electric field changes depending on the iron composition owing to the broadening of the 3-dimensional (3D) charge order region, which affects the robustness of the 3D charge order against an electric field in YbFe2O4 thin films.