DOI: 10.1063/1.4926933. Research Update: Stoichiometry controlled oxide thin film growth by pulsed laser deposition

Research Update: Stoichiometry controlled oxide thin film growth by pulsed laser deposition

10.1063/1.4926933

Crossref journal-article

AIP Publishing

APL Materials (317)

Abstract

The oxidation of species in the plasma plume during pulsed laser deposition controls both the stoichiometry as well as the growth kinetics of the deposited SrTiO3 thin films, instead of the commonly assumed mass distribution in the plasma plume and the kinetic energy of the arriving species. It was observed by X-ray diffraction that SrTiO3 stoichiometry depends on the composition of the background gas during deposition, where in a relative small pressure range between 10−2 mbars and 10−1 mbars oxygen partial pressure, the resulting film becomes fully stoichiometric. Furthermore, upon increasing the oxygen (partial) pressure, the growth mode changes from 3D island growth to a 2D layer-by-layer growth mode as observed by reflection high energy electron diffraction.

Bibliography

Groenen, R., Smit, J., Orsel, K., Vailionis, A., Bastiaens, B., Huijben, M., Boller, K., Rijnders, G., & Koster, G. (2015). Research Update: Stoichiometry controlled oxide thin film growth by pulsed laser deposition. APL Materials, 3(7).

Authors 9

Rik Groenen (first)
Jasper Smit (additional)
Kasper Orsel (additional)
Arturas Vailionis (additional)
Bert Bastiaens (additional)
Mark Huijben (additional)
Klaus Boller (additional)
Guus Rijnders (additional)
Gertjan Koster (additional)

References 26 Referenced 66

10.1063/1.3457994 / Appl. Phys. Lett. / Dramatic mobility enhancements in doped SrTiO3 thin films by defect management (2010)
10.1038/nmat2750 / Nat. Mater. / Epitaxial SrTiO3 films with electron mobilities exceeding 30 000 cm2 V−1 s−1 (2010)
10.1016/j.actamat.2009.09.024 / Acta Mater. / Pulsed laser deposition-induced reduction of SrTiO3 crystals (2010)
10.1021/cm203042q / Chem. Mater. / Effect of growth induced (non) stoichiometry on the structure, dielectric response, and thermal conductivity of SrTiO3 thin films (2012)
10.1038/ncomms3351 / Nat. Commun. / LaAlO3 stoichiometry is key to electron liquid formation at LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces (2013)
10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.197601 / Phys. Rev. Lett. / Ferroelectricity in strain-free SrTiO3 thin films (2010)
10.1063/1.2921972 / J. Appl. Phys. / Defects and transport in complex oxide thin films (2008)
10.1063/1.4754112 / Appl. Phys. Lett. / Pulsed laser ablation of complex oxides: The role of congruent ablation and preferential scattering for the film stoichiometry (2012)
10.1063/1.123235 / Appl. Phys. Lett. / Imposed layer-by-layer growth by pulsed laser interval deposition (1999)
10.1016/S0022-0248(99)00880-5 / J. Cryst. Growth / Epitaxial growth of oxides with pulsed laser interval deposition (2000)
10.1088/0022-3727/47/3/034009 / J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. / Impact of the interplay between nonstoichiometry and kinetic energy of the plume species on the growth mode of SrTiO3 thin films (2014)
10.1063/1.4717984 / Appl. Phys. Lett. / Stoichiometry of SrTiO3 films grown by pulsed laser deposition (2012)
10.1063/1.367106 / J. Appl. Phys. / Mechanism of incongruent ablation of SrTiO3 (1998)
10.1063/1.2146069 / Appl. Phys. Lett. / Improved stoichiometry and misfit control in perovskite thin film formation at a critical fluence by pulsed laser deposition (2005)
10.1063/1.2207500 / J. Appl. Phys. / Propagation dynamics of a LaMnO laser ablation plume in an oxygen atmosphere (2006)
10.1016/0040-6090(92)90562-P / Thin Solid Films / Physics and diagnostics of laser ablation plume propagation for high-Tc superconductor film growth (1992)
10.1063/1.122260 / Appl. Phys. Lett. / Pulsed laser deposition of oxides: Why the optimum rate is about 1 Å per pulse (1998)
10.1021/cg201461a / Cryst. Growth Des. / Consequences of high ad-atom energy during pulsed laser deposition of La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (2012)
10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.176102 / Phys. Rev. Lett. / Energetic surface smoothing of complex metal-oxide thin films (2006)
10.1063/1.1379050 / J. Appl. Phys. / Quantification of resputtering during pulsed laser deposition (2001)
10.1063/1.122630 / Appl. Phys. Lett. / Quasi-ideal strontium titanate crystal surfaces through formation of strontium hydroxide (1998)
See supplementary material at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4926933E-AMPADS-3-004507for time dependent RHEED intensity recorded during growth, XRD fitting results and additional experiments varying the thickness of the SrTiO3 films.
10.1063/1.3184767 / Appl. Phys. Lett. / Molecular beam epitaxy of SrTiO3 with a growth window (2009)
10.1016/S0921-4534(00)00363-4 / Physica C / Surface morphology determined by (001) single-crystal SrTiO3 termination (2000)
10.1103/PhysRevB.57.4829 / Phys. Rev. B / Dynamical x-ray diffraction of multilayers and superlattices: Recursion matrix extension to grazing angles (1998)
10.1063/1.3243696 / Appl. Phys. Lett. / Stoichiometry optimization of homoepitaxial oxide thin films using x-ray diffraction (2009)

Dates

Type	When
Created	10 years, 1 month ago (July 23, 2015, 1 p.m.)
Deposited	3 months ago (May 29, 2025, 3:29 p.m.)
Indexed	1 month ago (July 30, 2025, 7:05 a.m.)
Issued	10 years, 2 months ago (July 1, 2015)
Published	10 years, 2 months ago (July 1, 2015)
Published Online	10 years, 1 month ago (July 23, 2015)
Published Print	10 years, 2 months ago (July 1, 2015)

Funders 0

None

BibTeX

@article{Groenen_2015, title={Research Update: Stoichiometry controlled oxide thin film growth by pulsed laser deposition}, volume={3}, ISSN={2166-532X}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4926933}, DOI={10.1063/1.4926933}, number={7}, journal={APL Materials}, publisher={AIP Publishing}, author={Groenen, Rik and Smit, Jasper and Orsel, Kasper and Vailionis, Arturas and Bastiaens, Bert and Huijben, Mark and Boller, Klaus and Rijnders, Guus and Koster, Gertjan}, year={2015}, month=jul }

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