MULTI-ION-BEAM REACTIVE CO-SPUTTERING (MIBRECS) TECHNIQUE AND ITS APPLICATIONS IN DEPOSITION OF MULTI-COMPONENT FERROELECTRIC (Pb, La) TIO 3 THIN FILMS

Considering the advantages of ion—beam sputtering deposition over other sputtering processes and the needs for fine controlling the composition and microstructure in preparing multi—component oxide thin films, multi—ion—beam reactive co—sputtering deposition technique was developed. In this paper, MIBRECS apparatus and related techniques which allow the fine control of stoichiometry and microstructure of multi—componentoxide thin film are described, and epitaxial thin films of lead titanate (PT) and lanthanium modified lead titanate (PLT) thin films deposited on (0001) sapphire substrates for the first time by MIBRECS are reported.