Depth-Resolved Subsurface Defects in Chemically Etched SrTiO3

Abstract

Depth-resolved cathodoluminescence spectroscopy of atomically flat TiO2-terminated SrTiO3 single crystal surfaces reveals dramatic differences in native point defects produced by conventional etching with buffered HF (BHF) and an alternative procedure using HCl-HNO3 acidic solution (HCLNO), which produces three times fewer oxygen vacancies before and nearly an order of magnitude fewer after pure oxygen annealing. BHF-produced defect densities extend hundreds of nm below the surface, whereas the lower HCLNO-treated densities extend less than 50 nm. This "Arkansas" HCLNO etch and anneal method avoids HF handling and provides high quality SrTiO3 surfaces with low native defect density for complex oxide heterostructure growth

12 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Magnetic effects at the interface between nonmagnetic oxides
• The role of oxygen vacancies in SrTiO3 at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface
• High Mobility in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Heterostructures: Origin, Dimensionality and Perspectives
• Origin of charge density at LaAlO3-on-SrTiO3 hetero-interfaces; possibility of intrinsic doping

Cited by in corpus (9)

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• LaAlO3 stoichiometry found key to electron liquid formation at LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces
• Atomically flat single terminated oxide substrate surfaces
• Polar catastrophe in ultra-thin limit: A case of rare-earth perovskite LaNiO3
• Unintentional F doping of the surface of SrTiO3(001) etched in HF acid -- structure and electronic properties
• Sub-monolayer nucleation and growth of complex oxide heterostructures at high supersaturation and rapid flux modulation
• Field-effect diode based on electron-induced Mott transition in NdNiO3
• Understanding Leakage Currents through $A{l}_2{O}_3$ on $SrTi{O}_3$
• Band offsets at amorphous-crystalline $A{l}_2{O}_3-SrTi{O}_3$ oxide interfaces