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.
We record the two-dimensional laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) on multiple plasma constituents in a YBiO3 plasma. This allows us to directly link the influence of oxygen present in the background gas during pulsed laser deposition to the oxidation of plasma species as well as the formation of epitaxial YBiO3 films. With spatiotemporal LIF mapping of the plasma species (Y, YO, Bi, and BiO) in different background gas compositions, we find that little direct chemical interaction takes place between the plasma plume constituents and the background gas. However, a strong influence of the background gas composition can be seen on the YBO film growth, as well as a strong correlation between the oxygen fraction in the background gas and the amount of YO in the plasma plume. We assign this correlation to a direct interaction between the background gas and the target in between ablation pulses. In an O2 background, an oxygen-rich surface layer forms in between ablation pulses, which provides additional oxygen for the plasma plume during target ablation. This differs from our previous observations in STO and LAO plasmas, where species oxidation primarily takes place during propagation of the plasma plume towards the substrate.
We present the first spatio-temporal mapping of two simultaneously present species in a plasma used for pulsed laser deposition. We apply laser induced fluorescence spectroscopy (LIF) to map ground state populations of Al and AlO in plasma plumes generated by ablation of LaAlO3 in an O2 or Ar atmosphere. Around a specific distance from the target, we observe Al vanish simultaneously with the turnup of AlO. This can be assigned to the oxidation of Al in the background atmosphere occurring after a sufficient slowing of the expanding Al front. This is consistent with the absence of such effects when argon is taken as background. A quantitative evaluation of data promises to reveal important dynamical reaction and deposition parameters for identification of the origin of specific properties of PLD grown films such as 2-dimensional conductive interfaces.
Heterostructures formed by LaSrMnO/ZnO (LSMO/ZnO) interfaces exhibit extremely interesting electronic properties making them promising candidates for novel oxide p-n junctions, with multifunctional features. In this work, the structure of the interface is studied through a combined experimental/theoretical approach. Heterostructures were grown epitaxially and homogeneously on 4″ silicon wafers, characterized by advanced electron microscopy imaging and spectroscopy and simulated by ab initio density functional theory calculations. The simulation results suggest that the most stable interface configuration is composed of the (001) face of LSMO, with the LaO planes exposed, in contact with the (112̅0) face of ZnO. The ab initio predictions agree well with experimental high-angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy images and confirm the validity of the suggested structural model. Electron energy loss spectroscopy confirms the atomic sharpness of the interface. From statistical parameter estimation theory, it has been found that the distances between the interfacial planes are displaced from the respective ones of the bulk material. This can be ascribed to the strain induced by the mismatch between the lattices of the two materials employed.
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