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 result in composition-dependent surface atomic structures. 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.
@article{arxiv.2311.15700,
title = {Evolution of the surface atomic structure of multielement oxide films: curse or blessing?},
author = {Giada Franceschi and Renè Heller and Michael Schmid and Ulrike Diebold and Michele Riva},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2311.15700},
year = {2023}
}