Unraveling the enhanced Oxygen Vacancy Formation in Complex Oxides during Annealing and Growth

The reduction of oxides during annealing and growth in low pressure processes is a widely known problem. We hence investigate the influence of mere annealing and of growth in vacuum systems to shed light on the reasons behind the reduction of perovskites. When comparing the existing literature regarding the reduction of the perovskite model material SrTiO₃ it is conspicuous that one finds different oxygen pressures required to achieve reduction for vacuum annealing and for chemically controlled reducing atmospheres. The unraveling of this discrepancy is of high interest for low pressure physical vapor depositions of thin films heterostructures to gain further understanding of the reduction of the SrTiO₃. For thermal annealing, our results prove the attached measurement devices (mass spectrometer/ cold cathode gauge) to be primarily responsible for the reduction of SrTiO₃ in the deposition chamber by shifting the thermodynamic equilibrium to a more reducing atmosphere. We investigated the impact of our findings on the pulsed laser deposition growth at low pressure for LaAlO₃/SrTiO₃. During deposition the reduction triggered by the presence of the laser plume dominates and the impact of the measurement devices plays a minor role. During post annealing a complete reoxidization of samples is inhibited by an insufficient supply of oxygen.