Enhanced surface diffusion through termination conversion during epitaxial SrRuO3 growth

Abstract

During the initial growth of the ferromagnetic oxide ${\mathrm{SrRuO}}_3$ on ${\mathrm{TiO}}_2$ -terminated ${\mathrm{SrTiO}}_3,$ we observe a self-organized conversion of the terminating atomic layer from ${\mathrm{RuO}}_2$ to SrO. This conversion induces an abrupt change in growth mode from layer by layer to growth by step advancement, indicating a large enhancement of the surface diffusivity. This growth mode enables the growth of single-crystalline and single-domain thin films. Both conversion and the resulting growth mode enable the control of the interface properties in heteroepitaxial multilayer structures on an atomic level.