Epitaxial growth of vanadium nitride thin films by laser molecule beam epitaxy

Abstract Vanadium nitride thin films were epitaxially grown on SrTiO 3 and sapphire substrates by ablating vanadium target in activated N 2 atmosphere. The epitaxial orientation relationships of film/substrate are [ 001 ] VN / / [ 001 ] SrTiO 3 and [ 111 ] VN / [ 0001 ] α − Al 2 O 3 . Atomic force microscope measurements show the smooth surfaces of the films. High-resolution transmission electron microscope measurement was performed on the cross-section of VN/SrTiO 3 sample, which shows a good epitaxial growth. Temperature-dependent resistance measurements demonstrate that the films have typical metallic conductivity.