https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2002-00340-5
SrRuO
based heterostructures grown by pulsed laser deposition
INFM Coherentia - Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica,
Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”,
Via del Politecnico 1, 00133 Roma, Italy
Corresponding author: a tebano@uniroma2.it
Received:
3
July
2002
Revised:
12
September
2002
Published online:
31
October
2002
In this report we demonstrate that high quality epitaxial heterostructures, based on metallic SrRuO3 and insulating SrTiO3 individual blocks a few unit cells thick, can be grown in a purely 2D, layer-by-layer mode, using pulsed laser deposition with in situ reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) diagnostics. The thickness of each constituent block can be controlled at the level of a single unit cell. A detailed investigation carried out at the synchrotron facility, ESRF, by various X-ray techniques has demonstrated that each intensity oscillation of the RHEED specular spot corresponds strictly to the growth of a single perovskite unit cell, either SrRuO3 or SrTiO3. Furthermore, we show that, in these structures, the interfaces between the different constituent blocks are very sharp with a roughness of only one unit cell.
PACS: 81.15.Fg – Laser deposition / 61.10.Kw – X-ray reflectometry (surfaces, interfaces, films) / 68.55.Ac – Nucleation and growth: microscopic aspects
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2002