Molecular beam epitaxy deposition of Gd2O3 thin films on SrTiO3 (100) substrate

• Gd2O3 films grown on SrTiO3 (100) are prepared by Molecular Beam Epitaxy.
• Orientation relations have been deduced by XRD, SADP and TEM measurements.
• Interfacial properties of Gd2O3/STO have been investigated by TEM and STEM.
• Epitaxial crystalline film was obtained by changing annealing temperature.
• Gd2O3 films grown on SrTiO3 (100) are prepared by Molecular Beam Epitaxy.
• Orientation relations have been deduced by XRD, SADP and TEM measurements.
• Interfacial properties of Gd2O3/STO have been investigated by TEM and STEM.
• Epitaxial crystalline film was obtained by changing annealing temperature.

Gd2O3 thin films are grown on the SrTiO3 (100) substrate by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) deposition. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, conventional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) are performed to investigate the microstructure of deposited thin films. It is found that the as-deposited thin film possesses a very uniform thickness of ∼40 nm and is composed of single cubic phase Gd2O3 grains. STEM and TEM observations reveal that Gd2O3 thin film grows epitaxially on the SrTiO3 (100) substrate with (001)Gd2O3//(100)STO and [110]Gd2O3//[001]STO orientations. Furthermore, the Gd atoms are found to diffuse into the SrTiO3 substrate for a depth of one unit cell and substitute for the Sr atoms near the interface.

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