Characteristics of oriented LaNiO3 thin films fabricated by the sol–gel method

We fabricated LaNiO3 (LNO) thin films on SiO2 glass, (100) SrTiO3 (STO), (100) Si and CeO2-covered (100) Si substrates by the sol–gel method. The deposited films were heat-treated at 700°C with various conditions, duration and atmosphere. Preferentially (100)-oriented, polycrystalline LNO films were obtained on STO and Si. It was also found that orientated films could be formed even on SiO2 glass and CeO2-covered (100) Si substrates by altering the heating process. We investigated a relationship between the resistance and the crystallite size of the LNO films. The sheet resistance of LNO decreased with increasing crystallite size of LNO. The resistivity and sheet resistance of LNO/STO at 300 K were 340 μΩ·cm and 33.8 Ω/□, respectively, and those values of LNO/CeO2/Si at 300 K were 460 μΩ·cm and 28.8 Ω/□.