Growth control of oxygen stoichiometry in homoepitaxial SrTiO3 films by pulsed laser epitaxy in high vacuum

Abstract

In many transition metal oxides (TMOs), oxygen stoichiometry is one of the most critical parameters that plays a key role in determining the structural, physical, optical, and electrochemical properties of the material. However, controlling the growth to obtain high quality single crystal films having the right oxygen stoichiometry, especially in a high vacuum environment, has been viewed as a challenge. In this work, we show that through proper control of the plume kinetic energy, stoichiometric crystalline films can be synthesized without generating oxygen defects, even in high vacuum. We use a model homoepitaxial system of SrTiO3 (STO) thin films on single crystal STO substrates. Physical property measurements indicate that oxygen vacancy generation in high vacuum is strongly influenced by the energetics of the laser plume, and it can be controlled by proper laser beam delivery. Therefore, our finding not only provides essential insight into oxygen stoichiometry control in high vacuum for understanding the fundamental properties of STO-based thin films and heterostructures, but expands the utility of pulsed laser epitaxy of other materials as well.

References in corpus (6)

• High Mobility in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Heterostructures: Origin, Dimensionality and Perspectives
• Suppressed dependence of polarization on epitaxial strain in highly polar ferroelectrics
• Elastic effects of vacancies in strontium titanate: Short- and long-range strain fields, elastic dipole tensors, and chemical strain
• Growth mode control of the free carrier density in SrTiO3-d films
• Resonant tunneling in a quantum oxide superlattice
• Atomic layer engineering of perovskite oxides for chemically sharp heterointerfaces

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Enhanced flexoelectricity at reduced dimensions revealed by mechanically tunable quantum tunnelling
• Unconventional interlayer exchange coupling via chiral phonons in synthetic magnetic oxide heterostructures
• Probing Emergent Surface and Interfacial Properties in Complex Oxides via in situ X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy
• Tuning electromagnetic properties of SrRuO3 epitaxial thin films via atomic control of cation vacancies
• Selective growth of epitaxial Sr2IrO4 by controlling plume dimensions in pulsed laser deposition
• SrTiO${}_3$ termination control: A method to tailor the oxygen exchange kinetics
• Enhanced metallic properties of SrRuO3 thin films via kinetically controlled pulsed laser epitaxy
• Oxygen Partial Pressure during Pulsed Laser Deposition: Deterministic Role on Thermodynamic Stability of Atomic Termination Sequence at SrRuO3/BaTiO3 Interface
• Investigations of metastable Ca2IrO4 epitaxial thin-films: systematic comparison with Sr2IrO4 and Ba2IrO4
• Deep learning with plasma plume image sequences for anomaly detection and prediction of growth kinetics during pulsed laser deposition
• Deep learning with reflection high-energy electron diffraction images to predict cation ratio in Sr${}_{2x}$Ti${}_{2(1-x)}$O${}_3$ thin films
• Kinetic control of ferroelectricity in ultrathin epitaxial Barium Titanate capacitors
• Fabrication of oxide/FeSe multilayer films using the PLD technique