The process of growing Cr2O3 thin films on α-Al2O3 substrates at low temperature by r.f. magnetron sputtering

Cr2O3 thin films with a thickness of ~180 nm are grown on c-plane α-Al2O3 (0001) single crystal substrates at a substrate temperature of 320 °C by non-reactive radio frequency magnetron sputtering. Phase formation and composition are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy analysis. Additional information such as in-plane and out-of-plane lattice parameters, strain relaxation and texture are obtained by reciprocal space mappings (RSMs) and pole figure measurements. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has been carried out in order to study the microstructure and further confirm the orientation and epitaxial relationship between films and substrates.