CRYSTALLINE QUALITY AND SURFACE-MORPHOLOGY OF (100)CEO2 THIN-FILMS GROWN ON SAPPHIRE SUBSTRATES BY SOLID SOURCE METALORGANIC CHEMICAL-VAPOR-DEPOSITION

(100)-oriented, cerium oxide epitaxial thin films, approximately 250 A ngstrom thick, were grown on r-plane sapphire substrates using a solid source MOCVD technique. Rocking curve FWHM values as low as 0.63 degr ees and AFM surface roughness on the order of 5 Angstrom RMS were obta ined with substrate temperatures near 680 degrees C and growth rates o f 0.13 Angstrom/s. Lower substrate temperatures and higher metalorgani c source feed rates resulted in rougher layers, which had broader XRD rocking curve widths, indicating poorer out-of-plane alignment. RES ch anneling spectra showed that the best films had high crystalline quali ty: only at the film-substrate interface were slight distortions due t o lattice or thermal expansion mismatch detected.