MOCVD of lead-containing perovskites

A self-tuning approach to the growth of lead-containing complex oxide films free of secondary phases was developed. Due to the volatility of lead oxid e one can establish the process conditions when the phase purity is provide d in spite of any fluctuations of the mass fluxes. An additional advantage is suppression of the surface roughening with the increase of the film thic kness providing high smoothness (S-a = 1.2-1.5 nm) at the deposition rate u p to similar to1 mum/h. The effect is due to the quasi-liquid PbO-based sur face layer activating the surface diffusion during the film growth. This ap proach was successfully used for the growth of single phase epitaxial CMR L a1-xPbxMnO3 (x = 0.1-0.6), ferroelectric PbTiO3 films, scintillator materia l PbWO4 and the multilayers which were characterised by XRD, SEM, EDX, RBS, HREM, AFM, electric and magnetic measurements.