Periodic step structure of clean and YBa 2Cu 3O 7 − δ-covered vicinal SrTiO 3(001) surfaces

Abstract

We have studied the structure of a stable vicinal SrTiO 3(001) surface by UHV scanning tunneling microscopy. We find that the regular nanoscale step structure on the vicinal surface strongly influences the growth of c-axis-orientedYBa 2Cu 3O 7 − δ (YBCO) thin films. It generates an almost periodic surface structure of the YBCO films. This substrate-mediated control of the film growth is particularly important, because the resultant YBCO microstructure leads to an in-plane anisotropy of the transport properties in the high-temperature superconducting material.