Epitaxial lithium fluoride films grown by pulsed laser deposition

Lithium fluoride (LiF) films have been prepared on LaAlO3 (LAO), MgO, Si and TiN buffered Si substrates using a pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. Their surface morphology and structural qualities were studied by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD). Those films deposited on (100)MgO and (100)TiN buffered Si exhibited (200)LiF ∥ (200)MgO and (200)LiF ∥ (200)TiN (200)Si epitaxial relationships, respectively. These results suggest that LiF films can be epitaxially grown on lattice match substrates and, for the first time, on (100)Si via a buffer layer. LiF grown on bare (100)Si and (100)LAO substrates, however, yielded films of (100) preferred orientation only. Lattice mismatch and thermal effects are invoked to explain these observations. The surfaces of the LiF films are very rough and covered with large globules due to splashing of molten droplets from the target. In order to remedy such deficiencies we used a shadow mask to reduce both the size and the number of these globules while maintaining the heteroepitaxial properties. As a result optically smooth LiF films of excellent structural quality are produced.