CONTROL OF THE GROWTH AND DOMAIN-STRUCTURE OF EPITAXIAL SRRUO3 THIN-FILMS BY VICINAL (001)SRTIO3 SUBSTRATES

We report the effect of both miscut angle (alpha) and miscut direction (beta) of vicinal substrates on the epitaxial growth and domain struc ture of isotropic metallic oxide SrRuO3 thin films. The thin films hav e been grown on vicinal (001) SrTiO3 substrates with alpha up to 4.1 d egrees and beta up to 37 degrees away from the in-plane [010] axis. Si ngle-crystal epitaxial (110)degrees SrRuO3 thin films were obtained on vicinal SrTiO3 substrates with a large miscut angle (alpha=1.9 degree s, 2.1 degrees, and 4.1 degrees) and miscut direction close to the [01 0] axis. Decreasing the substrate miscut angle or aligning the miscut direction close to the [110] axis (beta=45 degrees) resulted in an inc rease of 90 degrees domains in the plane. The films grown on vicinal s ubstrates displayed a significant improvement in crystalline quality a nd in-plane epitaxial alignment as compared to the films grown on exac t (001) SrTiO3 substrates. Atomic force microscopy revealed that the g rowth mechanism changed from two-dimensional nucleation to step flow g rowth as the miscut angle increased. (C) 1997 American Institute of Ph ysics.