Cubic-to-monoclinic phase transition during the epitaxial growth of crystalline Gd_2O_3 films on Ge(001) substrates

摘要

Thin crystalline films of Gd_2O_3 are grown on an atomically flat Ge(001) surface by molecular beam epitaxy and are characterized in situ by reflection high energy electron diffraction and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and ex situ by x-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and transmission electron microscopy. The first stage of the growth corresponds to a cubic (110) structure, with two equiprobable, 90° rotated, in-plane domains. Increasing the thickness of the films, a phase transition from cubic (110) to monoclinic (100) oriented crystallites is observed which keeps the in-plane domain rotation, as evidenced by XRD and AFM.