Structural properties of Cr:In2O3 thin films by PLD technique

• Main Authors: Veeraswamy, Y., Sumalatha, E., Jana, Anupam, Choudhary, R. J., Phase, D. M., Reddy, M. V. Ramana
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chromium oxides; Columns (structural); Erosion; Indium oxides; Lasers; Oxygen; Partial pressure; Silicon substrates; Stoichiometry; Styli; Superconducting quantum interference devices; Surface roughness; Thin films; Vacuum chambers
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/1.5050745

High purity Chromium oxide and Indium oxide powders are taken as starting materials to prepare Cr: In2O3 powder by solid state reaction method to prepare robust targets for PLD. A KrF laser has used with wavelength of 248 nm, laser pulse time 10 ns and with laser energy of 200 mJ/pulse. For uniform target erosion and consumption a stepper motor was attached with a 6 rot/min. The films are deposited on ultrasonically cleaned Si (100) substrates maintained at a substrate temperature of 400°C. The vacuum chamber evacuated by a turbo molecular pump to a base vacuum better than 10−6 Torr and oxygen partial pressure was maintained between 1mTorr to 0.01mTorr. The deposited films are characterized by using GIXRD, AFM, EDS, stylus profilometer and SQUID. GIXRD suggests that the films deposited crystallizes in to a cubic structure with preferred (2 2 2) orientation. The surface roughness estimated from AFM for these films found to increase with decrease in oxygen partial pressure. At low oxygen partial pressure well oriented columns are seen. EDS analysis confirms the stoichiometry of Cr: In2O3 thin films. The M-H curve of Cr: In2O3 show clear hysteresis, suggesting that Cr doping has led to magnetic ordering in Cr: In2O3 films.