Thermal stability of the SrTiO3/(Ba,Sr)O stacks epitaxially grown on Si -: art. no. 072913

The growth of epitaxial SrTiO3 on silicon relies on the preparation of a template layer consisting of a mixture of barium oxide and strontium oxide, (Ba,Sr)O. In this letter, the limited thermal stability of this template layer is demonstrated. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy measurements reveal that both SrTiO3/(Ba,Sr)O and (Ba,Sr)O/Si interfaces are susceptible to chemical reactions upon thermal treatment to an extent that is correlated with the thermal budget. These results have strong implications on the overall viability of (Ba,Sr)O as template for the growth of crystalline oxides on Si.