The structure of Ferroelectric BaBiO$_3$/BaTiO$_3$ Interfaces grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

TL;DR

This study synthesizes and characterizes BaBiO$_3$/BaTiO$_3$ heterostructures, revealing strain effects, structural distortions, and ferroelectric properties, with implications for realizing exotic electronic states predicted in BBO-based systems.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed structural analysis of BBO/BTO heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy, highlighting strain, distortions, and ferroelectric coupling.

Findings

Strain relaxation observed in 4 unit cell BBO layers.

Strong tetragonal distortion in 2 unit cell BBO layers.

Suppression of charge density wave mode in Raman spectra.

Abstract

We investigate the lattice structure of heterostructures comprising of ferroelectric BaTiO$_3$ (BTO) thin films and BaBiO$_3$ (BBO), the insulating parent-compound of the high Tc superconductor. Motivated by theoretical predictions of exotic phenomena in BBO-based heterostructures including interfacial conductivity, superconductivity and topologically-protected states, we synthesize BTO/BBO heterostructures by molecular beam epitaxy and characterize their structural properties by in-situ reflection high energy electron diffraction and ex-situ high-resolution synchrotron X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and piezoforce microscopy. For heterostructures with 4 uc BBO layers, reciprocal space maps indicate strain relaxation relative to the SrTiO$_3$ substrate. We observe a strong tetragonal distortion for heterostructures with 2 unit cells BBO coherently strained to the BTO layers. Raman spectroscopy measurements indicate a suppression of the breathing mode distortion associated with the charge density wave in bulk BBO. The ferroelectric properties of the system are confirmed by piezoforce microscopy measurements. The coupling between the ferroelectric polarization and the electronic states in BBO may potentially serve as a starting point for tunable electrostatic doping to realize the novel predicted states in the atomically-thin BBO layers.