Single crystalline epitaxial platinum film on Al2O3(0001) prepared by oxygen-doped sputtering deposition

Abstract

We have deposited platinum by inductively coupled plasma-assisted radio frequency sputtering on an Al2O3(0001) substrate annealed at approximately 700 °C with and without oxygen blend. The surface morphology and crystallinity of the obtained Pt films with a thickness of approximately 200nm were subjected to atomic force microscope (AFM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) investigations. Without oxygen being introduced during the sputtering process, a (111)-oriented polycrystalline film was obtained. The introduction of oxygen led to the generation of twin single crystalline epitaxial Pt(111) films with a typical fcc(111) surface morphology of hexagonal symmetry.