Room-temperature heteroepitaxial growth of NiO thin films using pulsed laser deposition

Room-temperature growth of NiO thin films using the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique was investigated. Epitaxial growth of NiO thin films on (100)MgO substrates was not obtained when we simply placed a shadow mask between the substrate and target (eclipse PLD method), but was obtained when we used the conventional PLD method under the optimum ambient pressure condition. However, by applying a magnetic field from the substrate side during growth, NiO epitaxy was achieved even for the eclipse PLD method. This is due to the enhanced ionization and energization of flying species by the magnetic field application.