ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

With recent trends on miniaturizing oxide-baed devices, the need for atomic-scale control of surface/interface structures by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) has increased. In particular, realizing uniform atomic termination at the surface/ interface is highly desirable. However, a lack of understanding on the surface formation mechanism in PLD has limited a deliberate control of surface/interface atomic stacking sequences. Here, taking the prototypical-SrRuO3/BaTiO3/SrRuO3 (SRO/BTO/SRO) heterostructure as a model system, we investigated the formation of different interfacial termination sequences (BaO-RuO2 or TiO2-SrO) with oxygen partial pressure (PO2) during PLD. We found that a uniform SrO TiO2 termination sequence at the SRO/BTO interface can be achieved by lowering the Po-2 to 5 mTorr, regardless of the total background gas pressure (P-total), growth mode, or growth rate. Our results indicate that the thermodynamic stability of the BTO surface at the low-energy kinetics stage of PLD can play an important role in surface/interface termination formation. This work paves the way for realizing termination engineering in functional oxide heterostructures.

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