Precursor selection in hybrid molecular beam epitaxy of alkaline-earth stannates

Abstract

One of the challenges of oxide molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is the synthesis of oxides containing metals with high electronegativity (metals that are hard to oxidize). The use of reactive organometallic precursors can potentially address this issue. To investigate the formation of radicals in MBE, we explored three carefully chosen metal-organic precursors of tin for SnO2 and BaSnO3 growth: tetramethyltin (TMT), tetraethyltin (TET), and hexamethylditin (HMDT). All three precursors produced single-crystalline, atomically smooth, and epitaxial SnO2 (101) films on r-Al2O3 (101¯2) in the presence of oxygen plasma. The study of growth kinetics revealed reaction-limited and flux-limited regimes except for TET, which also exhibited a decrease in the deposition rate with increasing temperature above ∼800 °C. Contrary to these similarities, the performance of these precursors was dramatically different for BaSnO3 growth. TMT and TET were ineffective in supplying adequate tin, whereas HMDT yielded phase-pure, stoichiometric BaSnO3 films. Significantly, HMDT resulted in phase-pure and stoichiometric BaSnO3 films even without the use of an oxygen plasma (i.e., with molecular oxygen alone). These results are discussed using the ability of HMDT to form tin radicals and therefore assisting with Sn → Sn4+ oxidation reaction. Structural and electronic transport properties of films grown using HMDT with and without oxygen plasma are compared. This study provides guideline for the choice of precursors that will enable the synthesis of metal oxides containing hard-to-oxidize metals using reactive radicals in MBE.