Epitaxial film growth by thermal laser evaporation

We demonstrate the epitaxial growth of thin films by thermal laser evaporation. Epitaxial metal oxide films are grown by laser evaporating Ni, V, and Ru elemental sources in a variety of oxygen-ozone atmospheres on laser-heated oxide substrates. This results in NiO (111), VO2 (M1) (020), and RuO2 (110) epitaxial films on Al2O3 (0001) or MgO (100) substrates. The films show well-defined crystallographic orientation relationships with the substrates, as confirmed by in-plane and out-of-plane x-ray measurements. The results reveal the potential of thermal laser epitaxy for the epitaxial growth of ultrahigh-purity oxide heterostructures.