Deposicion y caracterizacion de peliculas delgadas de potassium niobate-tantalate (KTN) dopadas con litio

In this research work suitable conditions were found for deposition of epitaxial thin films of potassium niobate-tantalate (KTN) and lithium-doped potassium-niobate tantalate (KLTN) using the Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) technique. Thin films with preferential (100) orientation and no extraneous phases were obtained. From the morphological study of the films it can be concluded that they have smooth surfaces with average roughness near 45 A rms. From an x-ray diffraction study of the KTN and KLTN films grown using a complementary KNO3 target it was determined that no peak shifts or additional peaks which could be attributed to incorporation of the lithium dopant; that is, no structural differences were observed between the KTN and lithium-doped films. However, films deposited using a K1-yLi yNO3 complementary target under nominally identical conditions to the other films did show peaks evidencing a change in the KTN structure which can be attributed to lithium incorporation in its structure. The epitaxial character of the films grown on both MgO and SrTiO3 substrates was demonstrated by an x-ray diffraction study for off-plane orientations of the samples.