Preparation of heteroepitaxial LaNiO3 thin films on a SrTiO3 substrate for growing an artificial superlattice with RF sputtering

High-quality heteroepitaxial LaNiO3 (LNO) thin films were successfully grown on SrTiO3 (STO) substrates with RF-magnetron sputtering deposition at substrate temperatures in a range 150-650 °C. Azimuthal scans around the surface Bragg peak of the film and lattice images from a high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) show that a well epitaxial relationship between film and substrate is achievable through RF sputtering growth. BaTiO3/SrTiO3 (BTO/STO) artificial superlattices subsequently deposited on LNO-coated STO substrates with RF sputtering were found also to have a large dielectric constant and a small dissipation factor.