The Effects Of Substrate Thermal Mismatch on the Domain Structure of MOCVD-Derived Potassium Niobate Thin Films
ABSTRACTDomain stabilization in epitaxial potassium niobate films deposited by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition was studied. Stabilization was examined for films deposited on substrates with different coefficients of thermal expansion. X-ray diffraction of KNb03 films deposited on (100) MgAl204, (r) A1203, and (100)pseudocubic YAIO3 substrates shows a mixed domain structure consisting of (110) and (001) domains. However, KNb03 thin films deposited under identical conditions on (100) MgO, (100) SrTi03, and (100)pseudocubic LaA103 substrates exhibited only a single domain variant. A direct correlation between (001) domain volume fraction in the as-deposited KNb03 films and calculated strain resulting from thermal mismatch is observed.