Epitaxial BaSnO ₃ thin films with low dislocation density grown on lattice matched LaInO ₃ substrates

Abstract The use of LaInO ₃ with (110) surface orientation was investigated as a novel orthorhombic substrate for the epitaxial growth of semiconducting BaSnO ₃ thin films. On the basis of reflection high-energy electron diffraction, energy dispersive x-ray analysis and inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry measurements, we revealed that slight Ba doping of LaInO ₃ crystals is beneficial to stabilize the substrate surface, which facilitates the epitaxial growth of well-ordered BaSnO ₃ thin films by pulsed laser deposition. Fully strained BaSnO ₃ films without misfit dislocations found by means of transmission electron microscopy were achieved due to the negligible lattice mismatch between BaSnO ₃ film and Ba-doped LaInO ₃ substrate. Electric properties of La-doped BaSnO ₃ films exhibit a Hall-mobility of 69 cm ² V ⁻¹ s ⁻¹ at room temperature and 99 cm ² V ⁻¹ s ⁻¹ at 20 K at a constant charge carrier density of 3.8·10 ¹⁹ cm ⁻³ .