Volume 8, Issue 11 p. 917-923
Rapid Research Letter

Growth of SrTiO3 on Si(001) by hybrid molecular beam epitaxy

Lei Zhang,

Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Materials Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA

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Roman Engel-Herbert,

Corresponding Author

Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Materials Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA

Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Materials Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA

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First published: 10 September 2014
Citations: 28

Abstract

We report the heteroepitaxial growth of SrTiO3 thin films on Si(001) by hybrid molecular beam epitaxy (hMBE). Here, elemental strontium and the metal-organic precursor titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP) were co-supplied in the absence of additional oxygen. The carbonization of pristine Si surfaces during native oxide removal was avoided by freshly evaporating Sr into the hMBE reactor prior to loading samples. Nucleation, growth and crystallization behavior as well a structural properties and film surfaces were characterized for a series of 46-nm-thick SrTiO3 films grown with varying Sr to TTIP fluxes to study the effect of non-stoichiometric growth conditions on film lattice parameter and surface morphology. High quality SrTiO3 thin films with epitaxial relationship (001)SrTiO3 || (001)Si and [110]SrTiO3 || [100]Si were demonstrated with an amorphous layer of around 4 nm thickness formed at the SrTiO3/Si interface. The successful growth of high quality SrTiO3 thin films with atomically smooth surfaces using a thin film technique with scalable growth rates provides a promising route towards heterogeneous integration of functional oxides on Si. (© 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

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