Controlled surface reorganization of complex oxides by laser MBE

We report on the fabrication of ultra-thin layers of complex oxide perovskites, which display a variety of high-order surface reconstructions. In order to obtain the observed complex surface reconstructions (e.g. 6x2, 4x2, 4x4, etc.), nearly stoichiometric complex oxide material are found to be re-arranged into specific combinations of long-ordered periodic structures. We examine details of homo- and heterogeneous growth of SrTiO3 (STO) and LaNiO3 respectively on TiO2 terminated and mixed TiO2/SrO termination STO substrates by the combination of high-pressure RHEED and AFM to investigate mechanisms behind the high order surface reconstruction. J.C. was supported by DOD-ARO under the Contract No. 0402-17291 and NSF Contract No. DMR-0747808.