Epitaxial growth of LaMnO3 thin films on different single crystal substrates by polymer assisted deposition

Structure of epitaxial LaMnO3 thin films grown on different single crystal substrates by unconventional polymer assisted deposition (PAD) method was investigated. Epitaxial films were prepared from lanthanum manganite water based solutions deposited by spin coating on single crystal MgO (001), SrTiO3 (001) and SrTiO3 (110) substrates, and the influence of substrate type on the film structure was analysed. Better uniformity of the epitaxial LaMnO3 films on SrTiO3 substrates was obtained, but a non-stoichiometric La1-xMnO3 phase was formed after the heat treatment at 750 °C. In addition, the prepared thin films were multiple annealed at different temperatures up to 900 °C, in order to investigate importance of post-annealing treatment. Epitaxial nature of the prepared films was preserved after annealing at up to 900 °C and the structure rearrangement through formation of cell closer to bulk stochiometric LaMnO3 phase was observed.