Epitaxial growth of skutterudite (CoSb₃) thin films on (001) InSb by pulsed laser deposition

Heteroepitaxial growth of the cubic skutterudite phase CoSb₃ on (001) InSb substrates was achieved by pulsed laser deposition using a substrate temperature of 270 °C and a bulk CoSb₃ target with 0.75 at.% excess Sb. An InSb (a₀ = 4 0.6478 nm) substrate was chosen for its lattice registry with the antimonide skutterudites (e.g., CoSb₃ with a = 0 4 0.9034 nm) on the basis of a presumed 45° rotated relationship with the InSb zinc blende structure. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy confirmed both the structure of the films and their epitaxial relationship: (001)_{CoSb₃} ∥ (001)_InSb; [100]_{CoSb₃} ∥ [110]_InSb.