Epitaxial growth of high quality WO3 thin films

We have grown epitaxial WO3 films on various single-crystal substrates using radio frequency magnetron sputtering. While pronounced surface roughness is observed in films grown on LaSrAlO4 substrates, films grown on Y AlO3 substrates show atomically flat surfaces, as demonstrated by atomic force microscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. The crystalline structure has been confirmed to be monoclinic by symmetric and skew-symmetric XRD. The dependence of the growth modes and the surface morphology on the lattice mismatch are discussed.