Tracking the amorphous to epitaxial transition in RF-sputtered cubic BFO-STO heterojunctions by means of X-ray photoelectron diffraction

The epitaxial growth of cubic BiFeO3 ultrathin films on SrTiO3 (001) substrates by off-axis RF sputtering is demonstrated, suitable to X-ray spectroscopies interface investigation. X-ray photoelectron diffraction is used as a tool to probe the long-range crystal order and to track the transition fro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2016-09, Vol.109 (13)
Main Authors: Giampietri, Alessio, Drera, Giovanni, Píš, Igor, Magnano, Elena, Sangaletti, Luigi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied physics
Bismuth compounds
Dichroism
Epitaxial growth
Heterojunctions
Iron
Staggered configuration
Strontium titanates
Substrates
Thin films
Tracking
X ray photoelectron spectroscopy
X-ray diffraction
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Summary:The epitaxial growth of cubic BiFeO3 ultrathin films on SrTiO3 (001) substrates by off-axis RF sputtering is demonstrated, suitable to X-ray spectroscopies interface investigation. X-ray photoelectron diffraction is used as a tool to probe the long-range crystal order and to track the transition from amorphous to epitaxial growth as a function of deposition parameters. Further spectroscopic measurements, in particular, X-ray linear dichroism on the Fe L 3 , 2 edge, confirm the heteroepitaxial growth of BiFeO3 and clearly indicate a 3+ valence state for the iron cation. Finally, XPS is used to reconstruct the band alignment diagram, which results in a staggered configuration with a remarkable energy shift of the SrTiO3 band edges which can ultimately favor the n-type doping of SrTiO3.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.4963787