Chemical solution deposition of the highly c-axis oriented apatite type lanthanum silicate thin films.

Highly c-axis oriented apatite-type lanthanum silicate (LSO) thin films were fabricated by a simple solution coating method. In the solution coating method, LSO thin films are obtained by crystallization of initially deposited amorphous LSO precursor thin films. The degree of orientation was influenced by the precursor morphologies and a dense LSO precursor led to a high c-axis orientation perpendicular to the substrate. The oriented LSO thin films were composed of columnar grains with a single crystal orientation over the entire film thickness. In-plane orientation was not detected, which indicates that the c-axis orientation of the LSO thin films can be attributed to self-orientation.