Growth and characterization of SrMoO3 thin films

Highly conductive SrMoO3 thin films with good crystallinity and smooth surf ace were grown on SrTiO3 (0 0 1) substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The effects of substrate temperature and oxygen pressure on the structure, sur face morphology, and electrical properties were studied. In the range of su bstrate temperatures from 560 degreesC to 640 degreesC and oxygen pressure from 10 (-3) to 10 (-4) Pa studied in our experiments, high-quality SrMoO3 thin films were produced. Beyond the top temperature or oxygen pressure lim it, SrMoO4 appears as an impurity phase. High-resolution transmission elect ron microscopy (HRTEM) study shows that the SrMoO3 film has high-quality cr ystallinity and an epitaxial nature. The root-mean-square surface roughness of the film deposited at 2.5 x 10 (-4) Pa is 3.9 Angstrom. The films exhib it metallic conduction, which results from the delocalized electrons from M o. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements characterized its co re level spectra and the valence band. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All r ights reserved.