Growth of flat SrRuO3(111) thin films suitable as bottom electrodes in heterostructures

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the successful growth of flat, epitaxial SrRuO3(111) thin films on SrTiO3(111), which are suitable as bottom electrodes in heterostructures due to their flatness and magnetic properties.

Contribution

It reports a method for growing flat, epitaxial SrRuO3(111) films with magnetic properties, suitable as bottom electrodes in heterostructures.

Findings

Films are epitaxial and magnetic.

Thickness of 20-30nm yields flat films with RMS ~0.5 nm.

Suitable as bottom electrodes in heterostructures.

Abstract

Thin film growth of ferroelectric or multiferroic materials on SrTiO3(111) with a buffer electrode has been hampered by the difficulty of growing flat electrodes on this polar orientation. We report on the growth and characterization of SrRuO3 thin films deposited by pulsed laser deposition on SrTiO3(111). We show that our SrRuO3(111) films are epitaxial and display magnetic bulk-like properties. Films presenting a thickness between 20 and 30nm are found to be very flat (with an RMS of about 0.5 nm) and therefore suitable as bottom electrodes in heterostructures.