Growth of epitaxial γ-Al₂O₃ films on rigid single-crystal ceramic substrates and flexible, single-crystal-like metallic substrates by pulsed laser deposition

Epitaxial γ-Al₂O₃ thin films were grown on diverse substrates using pulsed laser deposition. The high quality of epitaxial growth and cubic structure of γ-Al₂O₃ films was confirmed by X-ray diffraction. SrTiO₃ and MgO single crystal substrates were used to optimize the growth conditions for epitaxial γ-Al₂O₃ film. Under the optimized conditions, epitaxial γ-Al₂O₃ thin films were grown on flexible, single-crystal-like, metallic templates. These included untextured Hastelloy substrates with a biaxially textured MgO layer deposited using ion-beam-assisted-deposition and biaxially textured Ni-W metallic tapes with epitaxially grown and a biaxially textured, MgO buffer layer. These biaxially textured, γ-Al₂O₃ films on flexible, single-crystal-like substrates are promising for subsequent epitaxial growth of various complex oxide films used for electrical, magnetic and electronic device applications.