Scanning tunneling microscopy of epitaxial YBa2Cu3O7−x films prepared by thermal plasma flash evaporation method

Abstract

The surface morphology of epitaxial YBa2Cu3O7−x films prepared by thermal plasma flash evaporation was extensively investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy. Under epitaxial film growth conditions with the deposition rate up to 0.42 μm/min, two-dimensional nucleus growth and spiral growth were observed. The main deposition species in this process was found to be the cluster ranging from 0.3 to 9 nm and the size of the cluster influenced the growth mode strongly. Theoretical analysis based on the two-dimensional critical radius revealed that smaller clusters became weakly bonded nuclei resulting in spiral growth and larger clusters became stable nuclei resulting in two-dimensional nucleus growth, which we named two-dimensional cluster nucleus growth. The clusters generated in the plasma boundary layer undoubtedly involve sufficient energy necessary for crystallization and show quite different characteristics from those of the clusters generated in vacuum by adiabatic expansion process. Hence, this process must be named “hot cluster epitaxy.’’