Rapid fabrication of chemical-solution-deposited La0.6Sr0.4CoO3−δ thin films via flashlight sintering

This study demonstrates the sintering effectiveness of an intense pulsed light (IPL) sintering method for the fabrication of lanthanum strontium cobaltite (La0.6Sr0.4CoO3−δ, LSCO) thin films via xenon flashlight irradiation. LSCO thin film was coated on silicon (100) wafer via metal organic chemical solution deposition (MOCSD) methods and the flashlight irradiation process preceded instantly under ambient room temperature conditions. The properties of flashlight irradiated films were compared with thermally sintered ones as reference target. Electrical property, surface morphology, and crystallinity were observed to evaluate effectiveness of the flashlight sintering method by employing four-point probe apparatus, FE-SEM, and XRD, respectively. Considering that flashlight sintering process is procedurally accomplished in milliseconds under ambient room temperatures, this method may be able to circumvent several issues from the conventional thermal sintering process in realizing a convenient and available sintering process. The significance of this work lies in the demonstration of xenon flashlight sintering methods of perovskite oxides that are fabricated via wet chemical solution methods.