Abstract
The thermal stability of epitaxial SrRuO3 thin films grown by pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) has been studied by repetitive annealing by steps of 100°C up to 800°C under high vacuum and high oxygen pressure conditions. The evolution of chemical state, surface crystallographic structure, surface topography, and the nature of desorption products were studied using electron diffraction, spectroscopy, and scanning probe microscopy. Exposure to atmosphere leads to decomposition of the surface in vacuum at ∼300°C, despite good crystalline order before annealing. At the same time, films annealed to 700°C in an oxygen/ozone mixture (10 mTorr) followed by vacuum annealing show no evidence of decomposition below 600°C. These results reveal that the surface stability of epitaxial SrRuO3 is strongly affected by the presence of surface contaminants after exposure to air. Vibrational spectroscopy identifies these contaminants as adsorbed hydrocarbons. Results are compared with thermodynamic calculations, and implications for oxide electronic device technology are discussed.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 118-132 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Surface Science |
Volume | 581 |
Issue number | 2-3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 1 2005 |
Funding
Research was performed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the US Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725. Support as a Eugene P. Wigner Fellow is acknowledged (SVK). Research was partially sponsored as part of a BES NSET initiative on Nanoscale Cooperative Phenomena and the LDRD program (HNL and HMC) and by the National Science Foundation grant DMR-0072998 (RGM).
Funders | Funder number |
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BES NSET | |
US Department of Energy | DE-AC05-00OR22725 |
National Science Foundation | DMR-0072998 |
Oak Ridge National Laboratory |
Keywords
- Metallic surfaces
- Reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED)
- Scanning tunneling microscopy
- Surface structure, morphology, roughness, and topography
- Thermal desorption spectroscopy
- X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy