Epitaxial growth and homoepitaxy of Pt(110) and Cu(110) on SrTiO₃(110)

We present a procedure for the growth of (110) oriented Pt and Cu on SrTiO3(110). This procedure provides excellent single crystal quality for both the Pt and the Cu films. We study the homoepitaxial behavior of Pt(110) and Cu(110) using low energy electron diffraction, X-ray photoelectron diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy. The Pt(110) surface is unstable to homowepitaxy at 600°C, resulting in a faceted surface exposing (111) terraces which are thousands of ångströms long and ≤100 Å wide. The Cu(110) surface undergoes spontaneous roughening below 300°C during homoepitaxy. Above this temperature, the Cu(110) surface grows smoothly, perhaps due to the increased disorder which occurs in the outermost layer of Cu(110) at 277°C. © 1993.