Electron microscopy studies of thin Mo films grown by MBE on (1 0 0) SrTiO3 substrates

✍ Scribed by E Tchernychova; C Scheu; T Wagner; Q Fu; M Rühle

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 696 KB
• Volume: 542
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0039-6028
• DOI: 10.1016/s0039-6028(03)00996-8

✦ Synopsis

A highly mismatched Mo/SrTiO 3 system was found to develop two non-equivalent orientation relationships between the metal film and the ceramic substrate. The molybdenum films, with a nominal thickness of 50 nm, were deposited by molecular beam epitaxy at T substrate ¼ 600 °C. The film and the substrate were investigated by X-ray diffraction, conventional and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The following orientation relationships (OR) were determined:

OR I {1 1 0}Mok{1 0 0}STO; AE1 0 0aeMokAE1 0 0aeSTO, AE1 1 0aeMokAE1 0 0aeSTO, OR II {1 1 0}Mok{1 0 0}STO; AE1 1 1aeMokAE1 1 0aeSTO. The interfaces between the different Mo domains and the substrate were examined by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. All interfaces were found to be abrupt; no significant reaction layer was directly observed. The grain boundaries between the domain variants are special tilt grain boundaries, as determined by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Some of the grain boundaries possess a low-energy configuration. The formation of the preferred orientation relationships, the interface features and the possible growth behaviour will be discussed.