Elemental intermixing within an ultrathin SrRuO{sub 3} electrode layer in epitaxial heterostructure BaTiO{sub 3}/SrRuO{sub 3}/SrTiO{sub 3}
- Key Laboratory of Polar Materials and Devices, Ministry of Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062 (China)
- Nanostructures Research Laboratory, Japan Fine Ceramics Center, Nagoya 456-8587 (Japan)
Aberration corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy is used to directly observe atom columns in an epitaxial BaTiO{sub 3} thin film deposited on a 3.6 nm-thick SrRuO{sub 3} electrode layer above an SrTiO{sub 3} (001) substrate. Compositional gradients across the heterointerfaces were examined using electron energy-loss spectroscopy techniques. It was found that a small amount of Ba and Ti had diffused into the SrRuO{sub 3} layer, and that this layer contained a non-negligible concentration of oxygen vacancies. Such point defects are expected to degrade the electrode’s electronic conductivity drastically, resulting in a much longer screening length. This may explain the discrepancy between experimental measurements and theoretical estimates of the ferroelectric critical thickness of a BaTiO{sub 3} ferroelectric barrier sandwiched between metallic SrRuO{sub 3} electrodes, since theoretical calculations generally assume ideal (stoichiometric) perovskite SrRuO{sub 3}.
- OSTI ID:
- 22492389
- Journal Information:
- AIP Advances, Vol. 6, Issue 1; Other Information: (c) 2016 Author(s); Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2158-3226
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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