Single crystal-like thin films of blue bronze

Abstract Pulsed laser deposition technique was employed to grow thin films of K 0.3 M o O 3 on A l 2 O 3 (1-102) and S r T i O 3 (510) substrates. Structural and imaging characterization revealed good quality films with well oriented grains of few microns in length. Both non-selective (transport) and order-selective (femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy) probes revealed charge density wave properties that are very close to those of the single crystals. The films exhibit metal-semiconductor phase transition in resistivity, pump-probe data show phase transition at the same temperature as the single crystal and the threshold for the photo-induced phase transition is approximately the same as in single crystal. We compare the properties of films with grains differing by an order of magnitude in length.