Film synthesis of SrTiO₃ by the spray-ICP technique

SrTiO₃ films were synthesized by spray pyrolysis in combination with a high-temperature inductively-coupled plasma (ICP) as the heat source (spray-ICP technique). Sapphire and fused quartz were used as substrates. Ten minutes of film formation yielded films of 0.5-1.0 μm in thickness. The structure of the films consisted of crystallites about 0.1 μm in size. With respect to the homogeneity of the size and shape of the crystallites, sapphire is superior over fused quartz. X-ray diffraction measurements of the films revealed preferred orientation peaks of (2 0 0), (1 1 1), and (1 1 0) depending on the substrates and their locations from the ICP source.