LAUSR

Abstract Thin lithium niobate (LiNbO3) films of up to 0.1 µm thickwere fabricated by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering (RFMS) onto the oriented (Si) and non-oriented (amorphous carbon) substrates. We revealed that the structure and morphology of fabricated films are affected by the island nucleation and subsequent coalescence and do not depend on the substrate type. The existed islands rather than the formation of new islands promote the growth of the studied films after their nucleation.This fact suggests that the higher mobility of adatoms of the sputtered materialis promoted by the plasma effect.