Epitaxy of single crystalline PrO2 films on Si(111)

A film of praseodymium sesquioxide with hexagonal structure, that has been deposited on Si(111) by molecular beam epitaxy, was annealed in oxygen atmosphere to obtain a PrO2 film for improved heteroepitaxy as buffer dielectric for alternative semiconductor layer integration. The film structure is characterized by x-ray diffraction and x-ray reflectometry. The film is single crystalline with Fm (3) over barm (fluorite) structure. It is B oriented with respect to Si and has lattice constants close to bulk PrO2. The cubic lattice of the PrO2 film is slightly distorted due to residual oxygen vacancies which increase the diameter of Pr ions. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.