Epitaxial growth of conductive LaNiO3 thin films by pulsed laser ablation

Epitaxial LaNiO3 (LNO) thin films have been fabricated on (001)SrTiO3 and (001)LaAlO3 single crystal substrates by pulsed laser ablation at 30 Pa oxygen partial pressure and 700 °C substrate temperature. X-ray θ–2θ scan, X-ray Φ scan, Rutherford backscattering (RBS) channeling and electron probe technique were used to characterize the as-deposited LNO thin films. The surface of the epitaxial LNO thin film was analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Down to 80 K, the epitaxial LNO thin film showed good metallic behavior and its resistivity was 2.5 × 10−6 Ω m at 300 K.