Control of the growth and domain structure of epitaxial SrRuO{sub 3} thin films by vicinal (001) SrTiO{sub 3} substrates
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708 (United States)
We report the effect of both miscut angle ({alpha}) and miscut direction ({beta}) of vicinal substrates on the epitaxial growth and domain structure of isotropic metallic oxide SrRuO{sub 3} thin films. The thin films have been grown on vicinal (001) SrTiO{sub 3} substrates with {alpha} up to 4.1{degree} and {beta} up to 37{degree} away from the in-plane [010] axis. Single-crystal epitaxial (110){ital {sup o}} SrRuO{sub 3} thin films were obtained on vicinal SrTiO{sub 3} substrates with a large miscut angle ({alpha}=1.9{degree}, 2.1{degree}, and 4.1{degree}) and miscut direction close to the [010] axis. Decreasing the substrate miscut angle or aligning the miscut direction close to the [110] axis ({beta}=45{degree}) resulted in an increase of 90{degree} domains in the plane. The films grown on vicinal substrates displayed a significant improvement in crystalline quality and in-plane epitaxial alignment as compared to the films grown on exact (001) SrTiO{sub 3} substrates. Atomic force microscopy revealed that the growth mechanism changed from two-dimensional nucleation to step flow growth as the miscut angle increased. {copyright} {ital 1997 American Institute of Physics.}
- OSTI ID:
- 534431
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 15 Vol. 70; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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