Thermodynamic instability at the stoichiometric LaAlO3/SrTiO3(001) interface
Abstract
Stoichiometric epitaxial LaAlO3 grown on TiO2-terminated SrTiO3(001) by off-axis pulsed laser deposition is shown to exhibit strong cation intermixing. This result is corroborated by classical and quantum mechanical calculations of the relative stabilities of abrupt and intermixed interface configurations. The valence band offset was measured to be 0.16 ± 0.10 eV, and this value cannot be accounted for theoretically without including intermixing in the physical description of the interface.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Physics Condensed Matter
- Pub Date:
- August 2010
- DOI:
- 10.1088/0953-8984/22/31/312201
- Bibcode:
- 2010JPCM...22E2201Q