Substrate surface engineering for tailoring properties of functional ceramic thin films

Using oxide substrates for functional ceramic thin film deposition beyond their usual application as chemical inert, lattice-matched support for the films represents a novel concept in ceramic thin film research. The substrates are applied as a functional element in order to controllably modify the atom arrangement and the growth mode of ceramic prototype materials such as cuprate superconductors and colossal magnetoresistance manganites. One example is the use of epitaxial strain to adjust the relative positions of cations and anions in the film and thus modify their physical properties. The other makes use of vicinal cut SrTiO3 which enables the fabrication of regular nanoscale step and terrace structures. In YBa2Cu3O7−x thin films grown on vicinal cut SrTiO3 single crystals a regular array of antiphase boundaries is generated causing an anisotropic enhancement of flux-line pinning. In the case of La–Ca–Mn–O thin films grown on vicinal cut substrates it could be demonstrated that magnetic in-plane anisotropy is achieved. (© 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)