Incipient ferroelectricity: A route towards bulk-terminated SrTiO3

Abstract

Perovskite oxides attract increasing attention due to their broad potential in many applications. Understanding their surfaces is challenging, though, because the ternary composition of the bulk allows for multiple stable surface terminations. We demonstrate a simple procedure for preparing the bulk-terminated (001) surface of SrTiO3, a prototypical cubic perovskite. Controlled application of strain on a SrTiO3 single crystal results in a flat cleavage with micrometer-size domains of SrO and TiO2. Distribution of these two terminations is dictated by ferroelectric domains induced by strain during the cleavage process. Atomically-resolved scanning tunneling microscopy/atomic force microscopy (STM/AFM) measurements reveal the presence of point defects in a well-defined concentration of (14+-2)%; Sr vacancies form at the SrO termination and complementary Sr adatoms appear at the TiO2 termination. These intrinsic defects are induced by the interplay between ferroelectricity, surface polarity, and surface charge.

References in corpus (10)

• Interface induced high temperature superconductivity in single unit-cell FeSe films on SrTiO3
• Unveiling a two-dimensional electron gas with universal subbands at the surface of SrTiO3
• Creation and control of a two-dimensional electron liquid at the bare SrTiO3 surface
• Locally enhanced conductivity due to the tetragonal domain structure in LaAlO${}_3$/SrTiO${}_3$ heterointerfaces
• Competition and cooperation between antiferrodistortive and ferroelectric instabilities in SrTiO${}_3$
• Anisotropic two-dimensional electron gas at SrTiO3(110) protected by its native overlayer
• Imaging and tuning polarity at SrTiO3 domain walls
• Unintentional F doping of the surface of SrTiO3(001) etched in HF acid -- structure and electronic properties
• Stoichiometry-driven switching between surface reconstructions on SrTiO${}_3$(001)
• Nanometer-scale striped surface terminations on fractured SrTiO${}_3$ surfaces

Cited by in corpus (12)

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• Single spin-polarised Fermi surface in SrTiO${}_3$ thin films
• Automated Real-Space Lattice Extraction for Atomic Force Microscopy Images
• Perspective: Molecular beam epitaxy of antiperovskite oxides
• Sliding ferroelectricity in a bulk misfit layer compound (PbS)${}_{1.18}$VS${}_2$
• Controlling crystal cleavage in Focused Ion Beam shaped specimens for surface spectroscopy
• Duality and degeneracy lifting in two-dimensional electron liquids on SrTiO${}_3$(001)
• Real and Reciprocal Space Characterization of the 3-Dimensional Charge Density Wave in Quasi-1-Dimensional CuTe
• First-principles based Monte Carlo modeling of oxygen deficient Fe-substituted SrTiO${}_3$ experimental magnetization
• Oxygen deficiency and migration mediated electric polarization in Fe,Co-substituted SrTiO${}_{3-\delta }$