Epitaxial ScAlMgO4(0001) films grown on sapphire substrates by flux-mediated epitaxy

Sc Al Mg O 4 ( 0001 ) epitaxial films have been synthesized on sapphire (0001) substrates by flux-mediated epitaxy. The key points were high temperature deposition and the use of additive BiOx, which was simultaneously supplied during the deposition; otherwise the growth of spinel phase such as MgAl2O4 was dominant. The BiOx is thus considered to promote the growth of ScAlMgO4 like a flux. This result indicates that the flux-mediated epitaxy is a promising way to high quality single crystal ScAlMgO4 films as a lattice-matched substrate for p-type ZnO and GaN films.