Multi-Step Growth of Oriented LiNbO 3 Thin Films

Highly-oriented LiNbO 3 thin films have been successfully synthesized through a refined 2-step growth process consisting of the successive use of a physical technique (r.f. sputtering) and a chemical one (pyrosol). Taking the strict control of processing parameters, a <001>-preferential out-of-plane orientation could be promoted on both <001>-Al 2 O 3 and <111>-Si substrates while the in-plane texture of the deposited layers was found to depend strongly upon the nature of the underlying templates.