Morphological variations on surface topography of YBa2Cu3O7-δ thin films on SrTiO3, with respect to the substrate misorientation direction

The surface topography of YBa2Cu3O7-delta thin films deposited on SrTiO3 substrates has been evaluated by atomic force and scanning tunneling microscopy. The observed correlation between the direction of the substrate misorientation and the surface morphology of the films produced is reported: when using substrates with offcut lying only along the [10 0] plane, smoother and highly ordered film surfaces are produced, while for substrates misoriented along both the [100] and [0 10] planes, island growth reappears in the resulting films. The findings demonstrate that the direction of substrate offcut influences the morphology of the films deposited, enabling better thin film engineering at nano-scale. Published by Elsevier B.V.