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Updated: Mar 23, 2026

Growth and Electrostatic/chemical Properties of Metal/LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Heterostructures
Published on: February 8, 2018
Conducting LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterointerfaces on atomically-flat substrates prepared by deionized-water
J G Connell1, J Nichols1, J H Gruenewald1
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA.
Abstract:
We have investigated how the recently-developed water-leaching method for atomically-flat SrTiO3 (STO) substrates affects the transport properties of LaAlO3 (LAO) and STO heterointerfaces. Using pulsed laser deposition at identical growth conditions, we have synthesized epitaxial LAO thin-films on two different STO substrates, which are prepared by water-leaching and buffered hydrofluoric acid (BHF) etching methods. The structural, transport, and optical properties of LAO/STO heterostructures grown on water-leached substrates show the same high-quality as the samples grown on BHF-etched substrates. These results indicate that the water-leaching method can be used to grow complex oxide heterostructures with atomically well-defined heterointerfaces without safety concerns.

