Atomic peening effect of ambient gas on platinum films grown on amorphous substrates by pulsed laser deposition

Abstract

The effects of substrate temperatures and ambient gas pressures on the preferred orientation of platinum films deposited on amorphous SiO2/Si(100) substrates by the pulsed laser deposition method were studied. Even at room temperature, platinum films could be grown under vacuum with (111) preferred orientation. The increase of substrate temperature to 600 degrees C induced the additional (100) orientation. While the presence of ambient oxygen or nitrogen gas suppressed (111) orientation at room temperature, it had the opposite effect of enhancing (111) orientation and suppressing (100) orientation at 600 degrees C. The effect of ambient gas pressure at high temperatures on the selective enhancement of platinum film crystallinity on SiO2 is proposed to be due to the atomic peening effect of gas molecules.