Journal article
Epitaxial strain and its relaxation at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface
Journal of applied physics, v 120(8), p85302
28 Aug 2016
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
A series of LaAlO3 thin films with different thicknesses were deposited by pulsed laser deposition at temperatures from 720 degrees C to 800 degrees C. The results from grazing incidence x-ray diffraction and reciprocal space mapping indicate that a thin layer of LaAlO3 adjacent to the SrTiO3 substrate remains almost coherently strained to the substrate, while the top layer starts to relax quickly above a certain critical thickness, followed by a gradual relaxation at larger film thickness when they are grown at lower temperatures. The atomic force microscopy results show that the fast relaxation is accompanied by the formation of cracks on the film surface. This can be ascribed to the larger energy release rate when compared with the resistance of LaAlO3 to cracking, according to calculations from the Griffith fracture theory. For films grown at 720 degrees C, a drop in sheet resistance by two orders of magnitude is observed when the top layer starts to relax, indicating a relationship between the strain and the conductivity of the two-dimensional electron gas at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface. The strain engineered by growth temperature provides a useful tool for the manipulation of the electronic properties of oxide heterointerfaces. Published by AIP Publishing.
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Details
- Title
- Epitaxial strain and its relaxation at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface
- Creators
- Guozhen Liu - Temple UniversityQingyu Lei - Temple UniversityMatthaus A. Wolak - Temple UniversityQun Li - Pennsylvania State UniversityLong-Qing Chen - Pennsylvania State UniversityChristopher Winkler - Drexel UniversityJennifer Sloppy - Drexel UniversityMitra L. Taheri - Drexel UniversityXiaoxing Xi - Temple UniversityTemple Univ., Philadelphia, PA (United States)
- Publication Details
- Journal of applied physics, v 120(8), p85302
- Publisher
- American Institute of Physics
- Number of pages
- 7
- Grant note
- DE-SC0004764 / U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences; United States Department of Energy (DOE) N00014-1101-0296 / Office of Naval Research CMMI-1031403 / National Science Foundation; National Science Foundation (NSF) 11304089 / National Natural Science Foundation of China; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) DMR-1410714 / National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000383913400054
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-84983381700
- Other Identifier
- 991019330792904721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Physics, Applied