# Homoepitaxial growth of SrTiO$_3$ by Pulsed Laser Deposition: energetic vs thermal growth

## TL;DR

This study compares energetic and thermal pulsed laser deposition methods for growing SrTiO$_3$ thin films, revealing differences in island growth and interlayer transport dynamics through in-situ X-ray scattering.

## Contribution

It provides new insights into how energetic particles influence homoepitaxial growth mechanisms compared to thermalized particles.

## Key findings

- Energetic PLD suppresses lateral island growth.
- Fast interlayer transport occurs in both methods.
- Energetic particles break up smaller islands.

## Abstract

Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) is widely used to grow epitaxial thin films of quantum materials such as complex oxides. Here, we use in-situ X-ray scattering to study homoepitaxy of SrTiO$_3$ by energetic (e-) and thermalized (th-) PLD. We find that e-PLD suppresses the lateral growth of two-dimensional islands, which suggests that energetic particles break up smaller islands. Fast interlayer transport occurs for both e-PLD and th-PLD, implying a process operating on sub-microsecond timescales that doesn't depend strongly on the kinetic energy of the incident particles.