AFM study of LaNiO3 thin films on various single crystal substrates prepared by using a metal naphthenate precursor

We investigated surface morphology of LaNiO3 thin films on LaAlO3 (100), SrTiO3(100), MgO(100) and sapphire (0001) substrates by using atomic force microscope (AFM). Chemical solution deposition process was adopted to prepare thin film with a metal naphthenate precursor. The power spectral density of thin films on LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 substrates exhibits an inflated shape at a spatial frequency into 10 μm−1 range with uniformly formed small grains, while LaNiO3 on sapphire showed a high root mean square roughness.