DETAILED ACTION
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election of Group I, claims 1-13 in the reply filed on 5/22/2026 is acknowledged. Because applicant did not distinctly and specifically point out the supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election has been treated as an election without traverse (MPEP § 818.01(a)).
Claims 14-16 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected method, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 5/22/2026.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-4 and 7-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Du et al. (Journal of Crystal Growth).
Du discloses a perovskite film disposed on a substrate. Concerning claims 1-4, Du discloses a Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3 perovskite thin film having a layered structure having the claimed Chemical Formula 1, wherein the film is deposited using a PLD process with a RHEED to determine layer growth (pp. 1992-1994; FIGS. 1 and 2; Experimental procedure). Given that the process is the same as that disclosed, the ratio of A’ atoms to all A-sites in one layer is different from at least 3 A-site atomic layers in the thickness direction and has the structure as claimed in claims 3 and 4. With respect to claims 7 and 8, since the process is the same the gradient change would be within the claimed range. Regarding claim 9, the thickness of the film is 25 to 200 nm and specifically 25 nm and 60 nm (pp. 1993-1997). Concerning claim 10, as shown above the atomic ratio of A atoms to A’ atoms is 60:40 which is within the claimed range. In regards to claims 11-13, since the film is the same materials and produced in the same manner, the properties as claimed would be within the claimed ranges.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5 and 6 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. The prior art is silent to the specific chemical formulas for the second, third, and fourth atomic layers as claimed in claims 5 and 6. As such, the subject matter of at least claims 5 and 6 are found to be allowable over the applied and cited prior art.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Kuno et al. (WO 2022/006515), Kondo et al. (US 20050218466), Hiratani et al. (US 5914068), Kocanda et al. (Crystal Structure Theory and Applications), Cheng et al. (Journal of the American Ceramic Society), and Gatea et al. (The European Physical Journal D).
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PRASHANT J. KHATRI
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1783
/PRASHANT J KHATRI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1783
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