Combinatorial exploration of flux material for Bi4Ti3O12 single crystal film growth

The combinatorial approach to materials synthesis was employed for the quick screening of a flux material for liquid phase-mediated epitaxy of Bi4Ti3O12 single crystal film. A series of ternary flux libraries composed of two self-fluxes (Bi2O3 and Bi4Ti3O12) and an impurity flux (VOx, WOx, CuOx, BiPOx, BaO, MoOx) were fabricated on the SrTiO3 (0 0 1) substrates. Then, stoichiometric Bi4Ti3O12 was grown on each one of these flux libraries at a temperature presumed to melt the flux. High-throughput characterization with the concurrent X-ray diffraction (XRD) method resulted in the discovery of a novel flux material, CuO, containing Bi2O3, for Bi4Ti3O12 single crystal film.