Atomically defined substrate surfaces are prerequisite for the epitaxial growth of complex oxide thin films. In this protocol, two approaches to obtain such surfaces are described. The first approach is the preparation of single terminated perovskite SrTiO3 (001) and DyScO3 (110) substrates. Wet etching was used to selectively remove one of the two possible surface terminations, while an anneal...

Epitaxy is the growth of a thin film by attachment to an existing substrate in which the crystalline properties of the film are determined by those of the substrate. In heteroepitaxy, the substrate and film are of different materials, and the resulting mismatch between lattice constants can introduce stress into the system. We have developed an island dynamics model for epitaxial growth that is...

In this paper we review work we have done at the IBM Almaden Research Center using the scanning tunneling microscope to understand the epitaxial growth of metal films. In particular, we explore the important role of deposit-substrate Interactions in controlling growth and film structure, both by strain of the substrate and by place-exchange intermixing. These are illustrated first by the growth...

A technique was developed to deposit GaN on a Si(1 1 1) substrate by a four-step process in a single reactor: formation of ultra-thin oxide, conversion to an oxynitride via NH3 exposure at the onset of growth, low-temperature MOCVD of GaN, followed by HVPE of GaN. It was found that this oxynitride compliant layer served to relieve stress at the GaN/Si interface as well as protect the Si substra...

Thin ®lms are often grown away from thermodynamic equilibrium and their morphology becomes determined by kinetics. The ®nal structure of the epitaxial ®lm is decided in the very early stage of submonolayer nucleation and island growth. Recent experiments with scanning tunneling microscopy opened up an unprecedented view of this early stage of epitaxial growth. Variable sample temperatures enabl...

Defect origins and their propagation behavior were investigated in 25 μm thick homo-epitaxial GaN layers grown on ammono-thermal void-assisted separation (VAS) substrates using multi-vector x-ray topography both transmission reflection geometries. Complex inclusions identified microstructure was analyzed. Additionally, generation of threading dislocation clusters during epitaxial growth is Vari...

This article discusses the growth of silicon and related materials using ultra-high vacuum chemical vapor deposition (UHV/CVD). This growth technique is well suited for deposition of strained epitaxial layers and also layers with metastable concentrations of impurities such as boron and carbon. In UHV/CVD, growth kinetics and the incorporation of various atoms other than silicon are determined ...

UNLABELLED Epitaxial heterostructures combining ferroelectric (FE) and ferromagnetic (FiM) oxides are a possible route to explore coupling mechanisms between the two independent order parameters, polarization and magnetization of the component phases. We report on the fabrication and properties of arrays of hybrid epitaxial nanostructures of FiM NiFe(2)O(4) (NFO) and FE PbZr(0.52)Ti(0.48)O(3) o...

An atomistic model of the growth kinetics of stressed solid-solid phase transformations is presented. Solid phase epitaxial growth of (001) Si was used for comparison of new and prior models with experiments. The results indicate that the migration of crystal island ledges in the growth interface may involve coordinated atomic motion. The model accounts for morphological instabilities during st...

InGaAsN and GaAsN epitaxial layers with similar nitrogen compositions in a sample were successfully grown on a GaAs (001) substrate by solid source molecular beam epitaxy. An electron cyclotron resonance nitrogen plasma source has been used to generate atomic nitrogen during the growth of the nitride layers. The indium composition changed from sample to sample to give compressive and tensile st...