Surface properties of atomically flat poly-crystalline SrTiO3

Comparison between single- and the poly-crystalline structures provides essential information on the role of long-range translational symmetry and grain boundaries. In particular, by comparing single- and poly-crystalline transition metal oxides (TMOs), one can study intriguing physical phenomena su...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2015-03, Vol.5 (1), p.8822-8822, Article 8822
Main Authors: Woo, Sungmin, Jeong, Hoidong, Lee, Sang A., Seo, Hosung, Lacotte, Morgane, David, Adrian, Kim, Hyun You, Prellier, Wilfrid, Kim, Yunseok, Choi, Woo Seok
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
147/3
639/301/1023/1024
639/301/930/1032
639/766/119/544
Boundaries
Chemical Sciences
Conduction
Crystallinity
Grain boundaries
Humanities and Social Sciences
Material chemistry
multidisciplinary
Oxides
Physics
Science
Science & Technology - Other Topics
Surface properties
Thin films
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Summary:Comparison between single- and the poly-crystalline structures provides essential information on the role of long-range translational symmetry and grain boundaries. In particular, by comparing single- and poly-crystalline transition metal oxides (TMOs), one can study intriguing physical phenomena such as electronic and ionic conduction at the grain boundaries, phonon propagation and various domain properties. In order to make an accurate comparison, however, both single- and poly-crystalline samples should have the same quality, e.g., stoichiometry, crystallinity, thickness, etc. Here, by studying the surface properties of atomically flat poly-crystalline SrTiO 3 (STO), we propose an approach to simultaneously fabricate both single- and poly-crystalline epitaxial TMO thin films on STO substrates. In order to grow TMOs epitaxially with atomic precision, an atomically flat, single-terminated surface of the substrate is a prerequisite. We first examined (100), (110) and (111) oriented single-crystalline STO surfaces, which required different annealing conditions to achieve atomically flat surfaces, depending on the surface energy. A poly-crystalline STO surface was then prepared at the optimum condition for which all the domains with different crystallographic orientations could be successfully flattened. Based on our atomically flat poly-crystalline STO substrates, we envision expansion of the studies regarding the TMO domains and grain boundaries.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep08822