Self-Assembly of SrTiO₃(001) Chemical-Terminations: A Route for Oxide-Nanostructure Fabrication by Selective Growth

Abstract

We report a method to fabricate functional oxide nanostructures ordered over the centimeter scale. Self-assembly of SrTiO3(001) chemical terminations through appropriate thermal processing leads to large-area chemical nanopattering of the surface. Such nanopatterned surfaces, stable at relatively high temperature, can be used as template to grow functional ordered nanostructures, exploiting the termination-dependent nucleation. As an example of this potential, we have fabricated ordered arrays of conducting epitaxial SrRuO3 nanostripes separated by insulating trenches. Conductivity maps by atomic force microscopy confirm the coexistence of sharp conducting/insulating regions in low-dimensional structures.