Pulsed Laser Deposition of Rocksalt Magnetic Binary Oxides

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is an effective method for growing high-quality rocksalt-structured binary oxide thin films, including NiO, MnO, and EuO, with tunable properties and strain levels.

Contribution

The paper systematically explores PLD growth parameters for NiO, MnO, and EuO, revealing how temperature and oxygen control influence phase purity, strain, and film quality in rocksalt oxides.

Findings

Successful epitaxial growth of NiO, MnO, and EuO films with controlled strain.

Growth temperature and oxygen availability critically affect phase stability and film quality.

PLD is a rapid, reliable technique for producing high-quality rocksalt oxide thin films.

Abstract

Here we systematically explore the use of pulsed laser deposition technique (PLD) to grow three basic oxides that have rocksalt structure but different chemical stability in the ambient atmosphere: NiO (stable), MnO (metastable) and EuO (unstable). By tuning laser fluence, an epitaxial single-phase nickel oxide thin-film growth can be achieved in a wide range of temperatures from 10 to 750 {\deg}C. At the lowest growth temperature, the out-of-plane strain raises to 1.5%, which is five times bigger than that in a NiO film grown at 750 {\deg}C. MnO thin films that had long-range ordered were successfully deposited on the MgO substrates after appropriate tuning of deposition parameters. The growth of MnO phase was strongly influenced by substrate temperature and laser fluence. EuO films with satisfactory quality were deposited by PLD after oxygen availability had been minimized. Synthesis of EuO thin films at rather low growth temperature prevented thermally-driven lattice relaxation and allowed growth of strained films. Overall, PLD was a quick and reliable method to grow binary oxides with rocksalt structure in high quality that can satisfy requirements for applications and for basic research.