Fabrication and characterization of monocrystalline Zn₂TiO₄ films on MgO (111) substrates by PLD

Abstract

Cubic Zn2TiO4 films were deposited on MgO (111) single crystal substrates using pulsed laser deposition (PLD). With the assistance of post-annealing process, the best epitaxial Zn2TiO4 film with only (111) single plane was obtained at 950[Formula: see text]C. For the best Zn 2TiO4single crystalline film, the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the XRD [Formula: see text]rocking curve for the Zn2TiO4(111) diffraction peak was only 0.12[Formula: see text]. From the TEM spectrum, the film had a regular lattice arrangement and strong periodicity. Structural analysis indicated that the out-plane and in-plane epitaxial arrangement of the film/substrate separately were Zn2TiO 4(111)//MgO (111) and Zn2TiO4 [10[Formula: see text]]//MgO <10[Formula: see text]>. The optical properties of the films were investigated in detail. After removing the influence of the transmittance of the substrate, the relative transmittance of the films exceeded 90% and the optical band gap of the films varied between 3.84 and 4.38 eV.