The growth behavior and stress evolution of sputtering-deposited LaNiO3 thin films

LaNiO3 (LNO) thin films were deposited on Si(1 0 0) substrates by ratio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. It was found that the stress evolution was directly related to the film morphology. At the early growth stage, the grain size and the orientation factor T100 increased rapidly below a critical thickness (about 100 nm), meanwhile the residual stress shows a compressive-tensile-compressive transition behavior associated with Volmer–Weber growth mode. With the films thickening, the columnar structure was developed, and simultaneously the compressive stress decreased gradually as a consequence of the grain growth. Finally, an additional influence of the thermal stress and hygroscopic extrinsic stress has also been taken into consideration.