Surface morphology of epitaxial lattice-matched Ba0.7Sr0.3O on Si(001) and vicinal Si(001)-4°[110] substrates

Exploring ways for self-organized structuring of insulating thin films, we investigated the possibility to produce replicas of step trains, given by a vicinal Si(001)-4 degrees[110] surface, in layers of crystalline and perfectly lattice-matched Ba0.7Sr0.30. For this purpose, we carried out high-resolution spot profile analyses in low-energy electron diffraction (SPA-LEED) both on flat Si(001) and on Si(001)-4 degrees[110]. Oxide layers were generated by evaporating the metals in oxygen ambient pressure with the sample at room temperature. Our G(S) analysis of these mixed oxide layers reveals a strong influence of local compositional fluctuations of Sr and Ba ions and their respective scattering phases, which appears as an unphysically large variation of layer distances. Nevertheless, we are able to show that quite smooth and closed oxide films are obtained with an rms roughness of about 1 ML. These Ba0.7Sr0.30 films directly follow the step train of Sr-modified vicinal Si surfaces that form (113) oriented facets after adsorption of a monolayer of Sr. This proves that self-organized structuring of insulating films can indeed be an effective method. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.