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The Effect of Miscut Angle and Miscut Direction of Vicinal (001) SrTiO3 Substrates on The Domain Structure of Epitaxial SrRuO3 Thin Films

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

Q. Gan
Affiliation:
Department, of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708
R. A. Rao
Affiliation:
Department, of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708
C.B Eom
Affiliation:
Department, of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708
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Abstract

We have grown epitaxial thin films of isotropie metallic oxide SrRuC>3 on both exact and vicinal (001) SrTiO3 substrates with miscut angle (α) up to 5.0° and miscut direction (β) up to 37° away from the in-plane [010] axis. The effects of both α and β on the epitaxial growth and domain structure of epitaxial SrRuC>3 thin films were studied by x-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy (AFM). On vicinal SrTiO3 substrates with a large miscut angle (α = 1.7°, 2.0°, 4.1°, and 5.0°) and miscut direction close to the [010] axis, single crystal epitaxial (110)° SrRuO3 thin films were obtained. [The superscript o refers to the Miller indices based on the orthorhombic unit cell.] Decreasing the substrate miscut angle or aligning the miscut direction close to the [110] axis (β = 45°) resulted in an increase of 90° 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) SrTiO3 substrates. AFM revealed that as the miscut angle increased the growth mechanism changed from two dimensional nucleation to step flow growth.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1997

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References

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