Synchrotron radiation study of VO2 crystal film epitaxial growth on sapphire substrate with intrinsic multi-domains

Abstract

The growth behavior of VO2 crystal film deposited on Al2O3 (0001) monocrystalline substrate by pulsed laser deposition was investigated by high-resolution synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction (XRD). φ-scan XRD confirmed the in-plane epitaxial matching relation. Furthermore, fine structures observed in the φ-scan indicated that each main peak contained two additional satellites in both the inclined (220) plane and some other vertical planes. A growth model for this observation was proposed based on the intrinsic multi-domain growth of the VO2 crystal at the interface. This observation will give some insights in VO2 epitaxial growth on the hexagonal substrate system.