Epitaxial growth and surface-acoustic-wave properties of LiTaO3 films grown by pulsed laser deposition

Abstract
Untwinned epitaxial films of LiTaO3 are deposited on (001), (110), and (012) sapphire substrates using a pulsed excimer‐laser ablation technique. Complete epitaxy in three dimensions is obtained under optimized conditions for each of the substrate orientations; (1) On (001) sapphire the (001) planes of the film are parallel to the (001) of the substrate [(001)LiTaO3 //(001)sapphire] and the [110] axis of the film is parallel to the [110] of the substrate ([110]LiTaO3//[110] sapphire); (2) (110)LiTaO3//(110)sapphire, [001]LiTaO3//[001]sapphire); (3) (012)LiTaO3//(012)sapphire, [01̄1]LiTaO3//[01̄1]sapphire. We have evaluated surface‐acoustic‐wave properties of these films.