UC Santa Barbara

Many complex oxides with only nonvolatile constituents do not have a wide growth window in conventional molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) approaches, which makes it difficult to obtain stoichiometric films. Here it is shown that a growth window in which the stoichiometry is self-regulating can be achieved for SrTiO3 films by using a hybrid MBE approach that uses a volatile metal-organic source for Ti, titanium tetra isopropoxide (TTIP). The growth window widens and shifts to higher TTIP/Sr flux ratios with increasing temperature, showing that it is related to the desorption of the volatile TTIP. We demonstrate stoichiometric, highly perfect, insulating SrTiO3 films. The approach can be adapted for the growth of other complex oxides that previously were believed to have no wide MBE growth window.