Quasi-epitaxial growth of BaTiS$_3$ films

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the growth of quasi-epitaxial BaTiS$_3$ thin films using pulsed laser deposition, revealing their structural properties and potential for heterostructures in perovskite chalcogenides.

Contribution

It reports the first successful growth of quasi-1D BaTiS$_3$ films with controlled conditions and analyzes their epitaxial relationships with substrates.

Findings

High-quality BaTiS$_3$ films achieved with specific growth parameters.

Strong out-of-plane texture observed in films.

Weak epitaxial relationships identified despite interface defects.

Abstract

Perovskite chalcogenides have emerged as a new class of semiconductors with tunable band gap in the visible-infrared region. High quality thin films are critical to understand the fundamental properties and realize the potential applications based on these materials. We report growth of quasi-epitaxial thin films of quasi one-dimensional (quasi-1D) hexagonal chalcogenide BaTiS$_3$ by pulsed laser deposition. We identified the optimal growth conditions by varying the growth parameters such as the substrate temperature and H2S partial pressure and examined their effects on the thin film structure. High resolution thin film X-Ray diffraction shows strong texture in the out-of-plane direction, whereas no evidence of in-plane relationship between the film and the substrate is observed. Grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering and scanning transmission electron microscopy studies reveal the presence of weak epitaxial relationships of the film and the substrate, despite a defective interface. Our study opens up a pathway to realize quasi-1D hexagonal chalcogenide thin films and their heterostructures with perovskite chalcogenides.