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A methodology to limit interfacial effects in thin films is proposed and explained. The strategy is to reduce the impact of the electrode interfaces and eliminate cross grain boundaries that impede ionic motion. To this end, highly oriented Nd0.1Ce0.9O2−δ (NDC) nanocrystalline thin films were grown using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on platinized single crystal a-plane sapphire substrates. High resolution cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (HR-XTEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) verified the films were textured with columnar grains. The average widths of the columns were approximately 40 nm and not significantly changed by film thickness between 100 and 300 nm. HR-XTEM and XRD determined the {111} planes of NDC were grown preferentially on top of the {111} planes of platinum despite the large lattice mismatch between the two planes. From the XRD …