HETEROEPITAXIAL GROWTH OF C-AXIS-ORIENTED BATIO3 THIN-FILMS WITH AN ATOMICALLY SMOOTH SURFACE

C-axis-oriented barium titanate (BaTiO3) epitaxial films with an atomi cally smooth surface have been fabricated on SrTiO3 {100} substrates u sing the pulsed laser deposition technique. The crystal structure and epitaxial orientation of the films have been analyzed by means of 2the ta/theta X-ray diffractometry and 4-circle X-ray diffractometry, The h ighly oriented and epitaxial crystallinity is also shown by means of R utherford backscattering spectrometry which gave a chi(min) of 1.7%. T he atomically smooth surface comparable to that of the SrTiO3 substrat e is revealed by means of atomic force microscopy. The breakdown elect ric field of the BaTiO3 film is as high as 10(6) V/cm.