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Polymer-assisted deposition of metal-oxide films

Nature Materials volume 3, pages 529–532 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

Metal oxides are emerging as important materials for their versatile properties such as high-temperature superconductivity, ferroelectricity, ferromagnetism, piezoelectricity and semiconductivity. Metal-oxide films are conventionally grown by physical and chemical vapour deposition1,2. However, the high cost of necessary equipment and restriction of coatings on a relatively small area have limited their potential applications. Chemical-solution depositions such as sol–gel are more cost-effective3, but many metal oxides cannot be deposited and the control of stoichiometry is not always possible owing to differences in chemical reactivity among the metals. Here we report a novel process to grow metal-oxide films in large areas at low cost using polymer-assisted deposition (PAD), where the polymer controls the viscosity and binds metal ions, resulting in a homogeneous distribution of metal precursors in the solution and the formation of uniform metal–organic films. The latter feature makes it possible to grow simple and complex crack-free epitaxial metal-oxides.

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Figure 1: A schematic illustration of metals (titanium - green; strontium - yellow) as simple salts or complexes bound to polymers.
Figure 2: The changes of film thickness (normalized to the thickness after 100 °C baking) and the refractive index, n, as a function of the calcination temperature.
Figure 3: X-ray diffraction spectra.
Figure 4: Epitaxial SrTiO3 films deposited by PAD on LaAlO3.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Materials Science and Technology, Superconductivity Technology Center, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, 87545, New Mexico, USA

    Q. X. Jia, Y. Lin, H. Wang & S. R. Foltyn

  2. Division of Chemistry, Structural and Inorganic Chemistry, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, 87545, New Mexico, USA

    T. M. McCleskey, A. K. Burrell & G. E. Collis

  3. Deptartment of Chemistry, Washington State University, Pullman, 99164, Washington, USA

    A. D. Q. Li

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  1. Q. X. Jia
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Correspondence to Q. X. Jia.

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Jia, Q., McCleskey, T., Burrell, A. et al. Polymer-assisted deposition of metal-oxide films. Nature Mater 3, 529–532 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1163

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