Issue 24, 2023

Evolution of the surface atomic structure of multielement oxide films: curse or blessing?

Abstract

Atomically resolved scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) are used to gain atomic-scale insights into the heteroepitaxy of lanthanum–strontium manganite (LSMO, La1−xSrxMnO3−δ, x ≈ 0.2) on SrTiO3(110). LSMO is a perovskite oxide characterized by several composition-dependent surface reconstructions. The flexibility of the surface allows it to incorporate nonstoichiometries during growth, which causes the structure of the surface to evolve accordingly. This happens up to a critical point, where phase separation occurs, clusters rich in the excess cations form at the surface, and films show a rough morphology. To limit the nonstoichiometry introduced by non-optimal growth conditions, it proves useful to monitor the changes in surface atomic structures as a function of the PLD parameters and tune the latter accordingly.

Graphical abstract: Evolution of the surface atomic structure of multielement oxide films: curse or blessing?

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
02 Oct 2023
Accepted
02 Nov 2023
First published
02 Nov 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Nanoscale Adv., 2023,5, 7009-7017

Evolution of the surface atomic structure of multielement oxide films: curse or blessing?

G. Franceschi, R. Heller, M. Schmid, U. Diebold and M. Riva, Nanoscale Adv., 2023, 5, 7009 DOI: 10.1039/D3NA00847A

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