2020/12/16 by Igor Sokolović, Giada Franceschi, Zhichang Wang +6 · 26 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Electronic and Structural Properties of Oxides #Ferroelectric and Piezoelectric Materials #Magnetic and transport properties of perovskites and related materials #Physics #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.103.l241406
published in Physical review. B./Physical review. B 103(24) (American Physical Society)
arxiv created 2020/12/16 · openalex created_date 2020/12/21 · openalex publication_date 2021/06/10 · arxiv updated 2021/06/16 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The surfaces of perovskite oxides affect their functional properties, and while a bulk-truncated (1\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi1) termination is generally assumed, its existence and stability is controversial. Here, such a surface is created by cleaving the prototypical SrTiO3(001) in ultrahigh vacuum, and its response to thermal annealing is observed. Atomically resolved noncontact atomic force microscopy (nc-AFM) shows that intrinsic point defects on the as-cleaved surface migrate at temperatures above 200\phantom\rule0.16em0ex^\ensuremath∘C. At 400\phantom\rule0.16em0ex^\ensuremath∘C--500\phantom\rule0.16em0ex^\ensuremath∘C, a disordered surface layer forms, albeit still with a (1\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi1) pattern in low-energy electron diffraction (LEED). Purely TiO2-terminated surfaces, prepared by wet-chemical treatment, are also disordered despite their (1\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi1) periodicity in LEED.