Impact of laser pulse repetition frequency on nucleation and growth of LiNbO3 thin films

Abstract

This paper reports the impact of the laser pulse repetition frequency on growth processes, morphological and electro-physical parameters of nanocrystalline LiNbO3 thin films obtained by the pulsed laser deposition technique. It was found that the nucleation process in LiNbO3 films could controllably change by increasing the laser pulse repetition frequency. The film obtained at the repetition frequency of 4 Hz consists of local islands and clusters with a diameter of 118.1 ± 5.9 nm. Nanocrystalline films, grown at the repetition frequency of 10 Hz, possess a continuous granular structure with a grain diameter of 235 ± 11.75 nm. Achieved results can be used for the development of promising “green” energy devices based on lead-free piezoelectric energy harvesters.

Efficient Optimization of High‐Quality Epitaxial Lithium Niobate Thin Films by Chemical Beam Vapor Deposition: Impact of Cationic Stoichiometry

“…Therefore, extreme limits must be achieved in the control of the required amounts for Nb and Li elements in the deposition technique. As a consequence, if epitaxial LNO thin films have been grown by different techniques ( [ 13 ] and references therein]), including Liquid phase Epitaxy (LPE), [ 20 ] sputtering, [ 21 ] Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD), [ 22,23 ] Pulse Laser Deposition (PLD), [ 24 ] Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE), [ 25 ] sol‐gel, [ 26 ] and atomic layer deposition (ALD), [ 27 ] a fabrication approach that allows a precise tuning of the Li and Nb elements, yielding films of high epitaxial quality, is of particular interest for an actual industrial implementation of the LNO films through a potentially appealing technique.…”