B-Site Cation Ordering in Films, Superlattices, and Layer-by-Layer-Grown Double Perovskites

The preparation of cation-ordered thin films of correlated oxides is of great interest for both fundamental and applied research. The scientific long-term vision is strongly motivated by the perspective of studying electronic correlations in condensed matter without the presence of chemical or quenched disorder. A promising material platform provides double perovskite A2BB’O6 bulk samples with different types of B/B’ ordering. However, the growth of A- and/or B-site-ordered correlated oxide thin films is known to be a challenging task. In this review, we evaluate the growth of double perovskite A2BB’O6 thin films by means of well-elaborated physical vacuum deposition techniques, such as pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and sputtering and compare them with a close-to-equilibrium growth with the metalorganic aerosol deposition (MAD) technique. The latter was further developed to grow an emergent interfacial double perovskite phase in LaNiO3/LaMnO3 superlattices, and finally, by way of a layer-by-layer route. The growth of La2CoMnO6 films on SrTiO3(111) substrates by sequential deposition of single perovskite layers of LaCoO3/LaMnO3/LaCoO3/… was demonstrated and the film properties were compared to those obtained within the state-of-the art growth mode.