Single-crystalline epitaxial platinum film on yttrium-stabilized zirconia (111) prepared by sputtering deposition

Abstract

Sputtering is an important film deposition method that has been used for the fabrication of thin films used in basic research to the mass production process in factories. However, single-crystalline epitaxial platinum film has not been successfully prepared on yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) (111) substrates by the sputtering method. We have deposited platinum by inductively coupled plasma-assisted sputtering on YSZ(111) with postdeposition annealing at 750–850 °C. As a result, single-crystalline epitaxial films with a root mean square roughness better than 0.2 nm were successfully fabricated.

Single crystalline epitaxial platinum film on Al2O3(0001) prepared by oxygen-doped sputtering deposition

“…As described above, we found that the ICP-RF sputtering process could produce atomically flat Pt(111) single crystal thin films on YSZ(111). 16) To reproduce this previous result on an Al 2 O 3 (0001) substrate, we first deposited a Pt film on Al 2 O 3 (0001) using the same process. The surface morphology of the deposited Pt film was assessed by AFM, as shown in Figs.…”

“…17) By combining ICP-RF sputtering and post annealing, we obtained single crystalline epitaxial films with a root mean square (RMS) roughness smaller than 0.2 nm. This previous result 16) encouraged us to consider the possibility of success-fully preparing an atomically flat single crystalline epitaxial Pt(111) film on Al 2 O 3 (0001) using the same process. Here, we report on the successful thin film growth of single crystalline epitaxial Pt films deposited on Al 2 O 3 (0001) by ICP-RF sputtering.…”

“…As shown in our previous paper, we used an inductively coupled plasma-assisted radio frequency (ICP-RF) magnetron sputtering process to synthesize atomically flat Pt(111) single crystal thin films on YSZ(111). 16) When the substrate temperature, for some reason, cannot be sufficiently increased to the pure thermal crystallization temperature, the ions that have been accelerated by ICP play an important role as an alternative to the thermal energy. 17) By combining ICP-RF sputtering and post annealing, we obtained single crystalline epitaxial films with a root mean square (RMS) roughness smaller than 0.2 nm.…”

Atomically flat palladium films grown on synthetic mica

“…11) As far as we know, there are no reports of direct SPM observation of atomically flat (surface roughness (RMS) less than 1 nm) palladium films grown on mica substrates. Recently, we have succeeded in obtaining an atomically flat nickel 12,13) and platinum 14) thin films grown on thermally stable synthetic mica (a fluorophlogopite mica), [15][16][17] respectively. Platinum films deposited on fluorophlogopite mica substrates by oxygen introduction and inductively coupled plasma assisted sputtering on synthetic mica substrates led to the growth of twin single crystal epitaxial Pt (111) films.…”

Atomically flat platinum films grown on synthetic mica

“…In that case, it is desirable that the surface of the substrate for such thin film growth is atomically flat. It is known that yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) 1,2) and sapphire 3) substrates can easily be atomically flattened by annealing in air. We have already succeeded in making Pt single-crystalline thin films on YSZ 2) and sapphire 4) substrates by the sputtering.…”