Critical thickness of high structural quality SrTiO{sub 3} films grown on orthorhombic (101) DyScO{sub 3}

Journal Article · Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 2008 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3037216· OSTI ID:21180005

Biegalski, M D; Trolier-McKinstry, S; Schlom, D G ^[1]; Fong, D D; Eastman, J A; Fuoss, P H ^[2]; Streiffer, S K ^[3]; Heeg, T; Schubert, J ^[4]; Tian, W; Nelson, C T; Pan, X Q ^[5]; Hawley, M E ^[6]; Bernhagen, M; Reiche, P; Uecker, R ^[7]

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1. Materials Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802-5005 (United States)
2. Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439 (United States)
3. Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439 (United States)
4. Institute of Bio- and Nanosystems (IBN1-IT), and Centre of Nanoelectronic Systems for Information Technology (cni), Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH, D-52425 Juelich (Germany)
5. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48019-2136 (United States)
6. Materials Science and Technology Division (MST-8), Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
7. Institute for Crystal Growth, Max-Born-Strasse 2, D-12489 Berlin (Adlershof) (Germany)

Strained epitaxial SrTiO{sub 3} films were grown on orthorhombic (101) DyScO{sub 3} substrates by reactive molecular-beam epitaxy. The epitaxy of this substrate/film combination is cube on cube with a pseudocubic out-of-plane (001) orientation. The strain state and structural perfection of films with thicknesses ranging from 50 to 1000 A were examined using x-ray scattering. The critical thickness at which misfit dislocations was introduced was between 350 and 500 A. These films have the narrowest rocking curves (full width at half maximum) ever reported for any heteroepitaxial oxide film (0.0018 deg.). Only a modest amount of relaxation is seen in films exceeding the critical thicknesses even after postdeposition annealing at 700 deg. C in 1 atm of oxygen. The dependence of strain relaxation on crystallographic direction is attributed to the anisotropy of the substrate. These SrTiO{sub 3} films show structural quality more typical of semiconductors such as GaAs and silicon than perovskite materials; their structural relaxation behavior also shows similarity to that of compound semiconductor films.

• OSTI ID: 21180005
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 104, Issue 11; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3037216; (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ANISOTROPY
ANNEALING
CRYSTAL GROWTH
CRYSTALLOGRAPHY
DIELECTRIC MATERIALS
DISLOCATIONS
DYSPROSIUM COMPOUNDS
GALLIUM ARSENIDES
MOLECULAR BEAM EPITAXY
NEUTRON DIFFRACTION
ORTHORHOMBIC LATTICES
OXYGEN
PEROVSKITE
SCANDIUM OXIDES
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
SILICON
STRONTIUM TITANATES
SUBSTRATES
THIN FILMS
X-RAY DIFFRACTION