TY - JOUR
T1 - Nanoscale structural variation observed on the vicinal SrTiO3 (001) surface
AU - Shiraki, Susumu
AU - Nantoh, Masashi
AU - Katano, Satoshi
AU - Kawai, Maki
N1 - Funding Information:
This research work was financially supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A), MEXT, Japan.
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - The vicinal (001) surface of a Nb-doped SrTiO3 single crystal has been investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy and low energy electron diffraction. The stepped surface prepared by annealing in ultrahigh vacuum at 250 °C exhibits a complex atomic structure composed of four types of reconstructions, which shows short-range variation within nanoscale regions. SrO layers show a c (6×2) structure being stable up to 1000 °C, while √13×√13-R33.7°, c (√13×√13) -R33.7°, and c (√2×√18) -R45° structures are formed on TiO 2 layers, which disappear at 450-750 °C followed by the formation of 2×2 and √5×√5-R26.6° structures. These results indicate instability of the reconstructions on the TiO2 terminated surface due to the variation in Sr adatom density caused by multikinetic processes, in contrast to the thermodynamically stable SrO terminated surface.
AB - The vicinal (001) surface of a Nb-doped SrTiO3 single crystal has been investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy and low energy electron diffraction. The stepped surface prepared by annealing in ultrahigh vacuum at 250 °C exhibits a complex atomic structure composed of four types of reconstructions, which shows short-range variation within nanoscale regions. SrO layers show a c (6×2) structure being stable up to 1000 °C, while √13×√13-R33.7°, c (√13×√13) -R33.7°, and c (√2×√18) -R45° structures are formed on TiO 2 layers, which disappear at 450-750 °C followed by the formation of 2×2 and √5×√5-R26.6° structures. These results indicate instability of the reconstructions on the TiO2 terminated surface due to the variation in Sr adatom density caused by multikinetic processes, in contrast to the thermodynamically stable SrO terminated surface.
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U2 - 10.1063/1.3447796
DO - 10.1063/1.3447796
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77953527395
SN - 0003-6951
VL - 96
JO - Applied Physics Letters
JF - Applied Physics Letters
IS - 23
M1 - 231901
ER -