Growth control of oxygen stoichiometry in homoepitaxial SrTiO 3 films by pulsed laser epitaxy in high vacuum

Ho Nyung Lee, Sung S. Ambrose Seo, Woo Seok Choi, Christopher M. Rouleau

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70 Scopus citations

Abstract

In many transition metal oxides, 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 SrTiO 3 (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.

Original languageEnglish
Article number19941
JournalScientific Reports
Volume6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 29 2016

Funding

The authors would like to thank D. G. Schlom and G. Eres for helpful discussions. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Science and Engineering Division. Optical measurements were conducted as a user project at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is sponsored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory by the Scientific User Facilities Division, U.S. Department of Energy. WSC was in part supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (NRF-2014R1A2A2A01006478).

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