Formation mechanism and thermoelectric properties of CaMnO3 thin films synthesized by annealing of Ca0.5Mn0.5O films

Abstract

A two-step synthesis approach was utilized to grow CaMnO3 on M-, R- and C-plane sapphire substrates. Radio-frequency reactive magnetron sputtering was used to grow rock-salt-structured (Ca, Mn)O followed by a 3-h annealing step at 800 degrees C in oxygen flow to form the distorted perovskite phase CaMnO3. The effect of temperature in the post-annealing step was investigated using x-ray diffraction. The phase transformation to CaMnO3 started at 450 degrees C and was completed at 550 degrees C. Films grown on R- and C-plane sapphire showed similar structure with a mixed orientation, whereas the film grown on M-plane sapphire was epitaxially grown with an out-of-plane orientation in the [202] direction. The thermoelectric characterization showed that the film grown on M-plane sapphire has about 3.5 times lower resistivity compared to the other films with a resistivity of 0.077cm at 500 degrees C. The difference in resistivity is a result from difference in crystal structure, single orientation for M-plane sapphire compared to mixed for R- and C-plane sapphire. The highest absolute Seebeck coefficient value is -350 mu VK-1 for all films and is decreasing with temperature. ; Funding Agencies|Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) through the Future Research Leaders 5 program; Swedish Research Council (VR) [2016-03365]; Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation through the Wallenberg Academy Fellows program; European Research Council under the European Communitys Seventh Framework Programme (FP7 = 2007-2013) ERC Grant [335383]; Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Functional Materials at Linkoping University (Faculty Grant SFO-Mat-LiU) [2009 00971]