Epitaxial growth of (1 1 1)-oriented spinel CoCr2O4/Al2O3 heterostructures

High quality (1 1 1)-oriented CoCr2O4/Al2O3 heterostructures were synthesized on the sapphire (0 0 0 1) single crystal substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The structural properties are demonstrated by in-situ reflection high energy electron diffraction, atomic force microscopy, X-ray reflectivity, and X-ray diffraction. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy confirms that the films possess the proper chemical stoichiometry. This work offers a pathway to fabricating spinel type artificial quasi-two-dimensional frustrated lattices by means of geometrical engineering.