Fabrication and characteristics of CeO2 films on Si(1 0 0) substrates by pulsed laser deposition

A detailed investigation about the dependence of film orientation on deposi tion temperature and ambient oxygen pressure has been carried out for CeO2 films on Si(1 0 0) substrates using pulsed laser deposition. It has been fo und that the CeO2 film orientation varies with increasing oxygen pressure a t 750 degrees C deposition temperature. In addition, the recovery of prefer ential orientation of CeO2 films grown at 20 Pa ambient oxygen pressure wit h increasing deposition temperature has also been found for the first time. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements confirm that stoichiom etric CeO2 films can be grown at lower oxygen pressure(similar to 5 x 10(-3 ) Pa). HRTEM result also indicates that the CeO2 films grown at low oxygen pressure are of high crystallinity. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All righ ts reserved.