Epitaxially grown LaSrCoO3 thin films on various substrates by the sol-gelmethod

LaSrCoO3 thin films have been prepared on various substrates by the sol-gel method using inorganic salts as starting materials. The crystallinity and in-plane alignment of the films were analyzed by X-ray diffraction theta-2 theta scans and beta scans (pole-figure analysis), respectively. Highly (h0 0)/(00l)-oriented LaSrCoO3 films with crack-free surfaces were obtained by annealing at 800 degrees C on SrTiO3(100), while films grown on MgO(100) an d Si(100) exhibited poor crystallinity. According to the X-ray diffraction theta-2 theta scan, crystallinity of the product films was found to depend on lattice-misfit values between the films and the substrates used. On the contrary, the lattice-misfit values were less effective to the epitaxy of t he LSCO film. Epitaxial film grown on SrTiO3 annealed at 800 degrees C was found by reciprocal-space mapping (omega-2 theta scan) analysis to consist of the pseudocubic phase.