Lithium manganese oxide films fabricated by electron beam directed vapor deposition

Lithium manganese oxide thin films have been grown using a gas jet based, electron beam directed vapor deposition technique. The deposition rate could be controlled by the electron beam power as well as the gas jet density and speed. This enabled films to be grown at deposition rates up to 16 nm/s which is a significantly higher deposition rate than that reported for the growth of this material by sputtering and other vapor deposition techniques. The lithium manganese oxide films grown by this approach were slightly manganese deficient with a composition Li1+xMn2-yO4, where 0.08 texture. These annealed films appeared well suited for use as the cathode layers in thin film Li/Li-ion batteries. (C) 2008 American Vacuum Society.