Argon assisted chemical vapor deposition of CrO$_2$: an efficient process leading to high quality epitaxial films

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that argon-assisted chemical vapor deposition produces high-quality CrO$_2$ epitaxial films with properties comparable to oxygen-assisted methods, offering an efficient process for thin film growth.

Contribution

It introduces argon as an effective carrier gas in CVD for CrO$_2$, achieving high-quality epitaxial films similar to traditional oxygen-based methods.

Findings

Argon carrier gas yields high-quality CrO$_2$ films.

Structural and magnetic properties are comparable to oxygen-assisted growth.

Microstructural analysis explains magnetic coercivity differences.

Abstract

A comparative study of the structural, microstructural and magnetic properties of CrO$_2$ thin films grown onto (110) and (100) TiO$_2$ rutile single crystal substrates by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), using CrO$_3$ as chromium precursor and either oxygen or argon as carrier gas is presented. Our results show that growth under argon carrier gas leads to high quality CrO$_2$ epilayers with structural and magnetic properties similar to those obtained using the more standard oxygen carrier gas. Furthermore, we interpret the larger magnetic coercivity observed for the (110) oriented films in terms of their microstructure, in particular of the highest strain and edge roughness of the building structures of the CrO$_2$ epilayers, which are settled by the substrate crystallographic orientation.