Preparation of c-axis textured SrTiO3 thin films on Si(1 0 0) substrates by pulsed laser deposition process

Highly c-axis textured SrTiO3 (STO) thin films were directly grown on Si(1 0 0) substrates by XeCl excimer pulsed laser deposition technique without the utilization of buffer layer. Among the important deposition parameters, the substrate temperature, oxygen pressure, and target-to-substrate distance imposed most significant effect on the c-axis preferred orientation characteristics of the STO thin films.For the optimum deposition parameters such as substrate temperature of 700 °C, oxygen pressure of 6.67×10−2 mbar and target-to-substrate distance of 35 mm, the full width at half maximum intensity (FWHM) of STO(0 0 2) XRD peak was 0.42°. The FWHM of STO(0 0 2) peak was further reduced to 0.35° and 0.32° via. post-treatment with rapid thermal annealing (RTA at 800 °C for 30 s) and furnace annealing process (at 1000 °C for 1.5 h), respectively. The STO/Si films thus obtained are suitable for the synthesis of perovskite ferroelectric thin films.