SrRuO3 based heterostructures grown by pulsed laser deposition

In this report we demonstrate that high quality epitaxial heterostructures, based on metallic SrRuO3 and insulating SrTiO3 individual blocks a few unit cells thick, can be grown in a purely 2D, layer-by-layer mode, using pulsed laser deposition with in situ reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) diagnostics. The thickness of each constituent block can be controlled at the level of a single unit cell. A detailed investigation carried out at the synchrotron facility, ESRF, by various X-ray techniques has demonstrated that each intensity oscillation of the RHEED specular spot corresponds strictly to the growth of a single perovskite unit cell, either SrRuO3 or SrTiO3. Furthermore, we show that, in these structures, the interfaces between the different constituent blocks are very sharp with a roughness of only one unit cell.