Structural evolution and epitaxial stabilisation of pulsed laser deposited Sm0.55Nd0.45NiO3 solid solution nanostructured films on undoped Si (1 0 0) and NdGaO3 substrates

Abstract We report on the effects of substrate, ambient oxygen pressure and deposition time on the crystal structure, and morphology of Sm 0.55 Nd 0.45 NiO 3 solid solution nanostructured films synthesized by pulsed-laser deposition. In each film the structure was found to be consistent with a perovskite structure with preferential planes growth and reveals a strong orientation along the orthorhombic (2 1 0) plane of the perovskite subcell for the film deposited on NdGaO 3 where highly crystalline films were obtained within 15 min deposition time with a low surface roughness of 8.79 nm. Similar structure is observed on Si (1 0 0) substrate only at O 2 pressure of 0.4 mbar. The surface morphology of the different samples shows a net dense film structure with several droplets population. The nano-scaled droplets are in general spherical in shape; a detailed analysis indicates that the laser ablation of this nickelate family is governed to a certain extent by a heat transfer phenomenon.