Defect Structure of Heteroepitaxial SnO₂ Thin Films Grown on TiO₂ Substrates

Abstract

Heteroepitaxal SnO 2 thin films were grown on rutile (100) TiO 2 single crystal substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The defect structure and surface morphology were investigated by transmission electron microscopy, reflection high-energy electron diffraction, and atomic force microscopy. The misfit-induced large biaxial compressive stress in the 200-nm-thick SnO 2 thin film was almost fully relaxed to yield the high-density interfacial misfit dislocations and related planar defects. The misfit dislocation network on the hetero-interface consisted of two types of partial edge dislocations with Burgers vectors of 1/2 101 and 1/2 110 , which involved {101} and {010} planar defects formed in the film, respectively. The evolution of the surface morphology and cross-sectional structure for thinner films suggested that the introduction of such defects occurs at the early growth stage, due to large lattice misfit, and is strongly affected by point defect condensation.

Synthesis, Structural Correlations, and Photocatalytic Properties of TiO2 Nanotube/SnO2−Pd Nanoparticle Heterostructures

“…During late-stage annealing at the relatively low temperature of 450°C, the abundant Pd and SnO 2 nanoparticles, being seeds, then induced the early crystallization of the amorphous TiO 2 to a rutile phase following the lattices of the Pd and rutile SnO 2 crystallites to exhibit Pd (111) ) rutile TiO 2 (101) and SnO 2 (110) ) rutile TiO 2 (110) orientations. Similar studies of the induced crystallization of SnO 2 films by crystalline TiO 2 substrates or of TiO 2 particles by SnO 2 crystallites as well as of crystal structures or lattice mismatches 37,38 have verified the possibility of the structural correlations observed herein.…”

Effect of Thermal Strain on Domain Fraction in a-/b-axis-oriented Epitaxial Bi4Ti3O12 Films

“…We consider that a relaxation of the ε th//[010] at the electrode layer might contribute to the difference. The gliding plane of the rutile and perovskite crystal are (101) and (110), respectively [13,14]. Hence, the ε th// [010] can be relaxed by the dislocation at the gliding plane parallel to the substrate surface.…”

Epitaxial growth of orthorhombic SnO2 films on various YSZ substrates by plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition

“…For epitaxial growth of SnO 2 films, several deposition techniques have been employed, including sputtering [16], atomic layer deposition (ALD) [17][18][19], pulsed laser deposition (PLD) [20,21], molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) [22,23], and metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) [24], and the commonly used substrates are sapphire, TiO 2 , and SrTiO 3 single crystals [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. However, most of the deposited films were the conventional rutile SnO 2 .…”