Abstract
High-quality SrRuO3 (SRO) thin films and SrTiO3/SRO bilayer were grown epitaxially on SrTiO3 (STO)(001) substrates by laser molecular beam epitaxy. The results of in situ observation of reflection high-energy electron diffraction and ex situ X-ray diffraction ϑ-2ϑ scan indicate that the SRO thin films have good crystallinity. The measurements of atomic force microscopy and scan tunneling microscopy reveal that the surface of the SRO thin film is atomically smooth. The resistivity of the SRO thin film is 300 μΘ·cm at room temperature. Furthermore, the transmission electron microscopy study shows that the interfaces of STO/SRO and SRO/STO are very clear and no interfacial reaction layer was observed. The experimental results show that the SRO thin film is an excellent electrode material for devices based on perovskite oxide materials.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Jones C W, Battle P D, Lightfoot P, et al. The structure of SrRuO3 by time-of-flight neutron powder diffraction. Acta Cryst, 1989, C45: 365–367
Ito S, Funakubo H, Koutsaroff I P, et al. Effect of the thermal expansion matching on the dielectric tunability of (100)-one-axis-oriented (Ba0.5Sr0.5)TiO3 thin films. Appl Phys Lett, 2007, 90: 142910
Zheng R Y, Gao X S, Zhou Z H, et al. Multiferroic BiFeO3 thin films deposited on SrRuO3 buffer layer by rf sputtering. J Appl Phys, 2007, 101: 054104
Chu Y H, Zhan Q, Martin L M, et al. Nanoscale domain control in multiferroic BiFeO3 thin films. Adv Mater, 2006, 18: 2307–2311
You C C, Rystad N V, Borg A, et al. Nanoscale structuring of SrRuO3 thin film surfaces by scanning tunneling microscopy. Appl Surf Sci, 2007, 253: 4704–4708
Choi J, Eom C B, Rijnders G, et al. Growth mode transition from layer by layer to step flow during the growth of heteroepitaxial SrRuO3 on (001) SrTiO3. Appl Phys Lett, 2001, 79: 1447–1449
Kim S S, Seong T Y, Kim H S, et al. Heteroepitaxial growth behavior of SrRuO3/SrTiO3(001) by pulsed laser deposition. J Appl Phys, 2002, 92: 4820–4824
Sánchez F, García-Cuenca M V, Ferrater C, et al. Transition from three-to two-dimensional growth in strained SrRuO3 films on SrTiO3 (001). Appl Phys Lett, 2003, 83: 902–904
Okuda N, Saito K, Funakubo H. Low-temperature deposition of SrRuO3 thin film prepared by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. Jpn J Appl Phys, 2000, 39: 572–576
Sumi A, Takahashi K, Yokoyama S, et al. Metalorganic chemical vapor deposition of atomically flat SrRuO3 films on stepped SrTiO3 substrates. Appl Phys Lett, 2005, 87: 052112
Eom C B, Van Dover R B, Phillips J M, et al. Fabrication and properties of epitaxial ferroelectric heterostructures with (SrRuO3) isotropic metallic oxide electrodes. Appl Phys Lett, 1993, 63: 2570–2572
Jin K J, Lu H B, Zhou Q L, et al. Positive colossal magnetoresistance from interface effect in p-n junction of La0.9Sr0.1MnO3 and SrNb0.01Ti0.99O3. Phys Rev B, 2005, 71: 184428
Yang G Z, Lu H B, Chen F, et al. Laser molecular beam epitaxy and characterization of perovskite oxide thin films. J Cryst Growth, 2001, 227–228: 929–935
Liu L F, Lu H B, Fei Y Y, et al. Formation of atomically smooth surfaces on SrTiO3 substrates for epitaxial film growth. J Cryst Growth, 2003, 253: 374–377
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10334070)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Liu, G., He, M., Jin, K. et al. Fabrication of atomically smooth SrRuO3 thin films by laser molecular beam epitaxy. Sci. China Ser. G-Phys. Mech. Astron. 51, 745–749 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-008-0080-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-008-0080-z