CVD of CrO2: towards a lower temperature deposition process

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a low-temperature atmospheric pressure CVD process for synthesizing high-quality, highly oriented CrO2 films on sapphire, maintaining magnetic properties at significantly reduced temperatures.

Contribution

It introduces a novel low-temperature CVD method for CrO2 film deposition, enabling compatibility with thermally sensitive materials.

Findings

CrO2 films synthesized at 330°C retain high magnetic quality

The process reduces the deposition temperature by about 70°C

Films exhibit high orientation and magnetic behavior comparable to higher temperature methods

Abstract

We report on the synthesis of highly oriented a-axis CrO2 films onto (0001) sapphire by atmospheric pressure CVD from CrO3 precursor, at growth temperatures down to 330 degree Celsius, i.e. close to 70 degrees lower than in published data for the same chemical system. The films keep the high quality magnetic behaviour as those deposited at higher temperature, which can be looked as a promising result in view of their use with thermally sensitive materials, e.g. narrow band gap semiconductors.