Fabrication and characterization of monocrystalline Zn2TiO4 films on MgO (111) substrates by PLD

Abstract

Cubic Zn2TiO4 films were deposited on MgO (111) single crystal substrates using pulsed laser deposition (PLD). With the assistance of post-annealing process, the best epitaxial Zn2TiO4 film with only (111) single plane was obtained at 950[Formula: see text]C. For the best Zn2TiO4 single crystalline film, the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the XRD [Formula: see text] rocking curve for the Zn2TiO4 (111) diffraction peak was only 0.12[Formula: see text]. From the TEM spectrum, the film had a regular lattice arrangement and strong periodicity. Structural analysis indicated that the out-plane and in-plane epitaxial arrangement of the film/substrate separately were Zn2TiO4 (111)//MgO (111) and Zn2TiO4 [10[Formula: see text]]//MgO <10[Formula: see text]>. The optical properties of the films were investigated in detail. After removing the influence of the transmittance of the substrate, the relative transmittance of the films exceeded 90% and the optical band gap of the films varied between 3.84 and 4.38 eV.