Вышедшие номера
Tensile strain induced changes in the optical spectra of SrTiO3 epitaxial thin films
Dejneka A.1, Tyunina M.2, Narkilahti J.2, Levoska J.2, Chvostova D.1, Jastrabik L.1, Trepakov V.A.1,3
1Institute of Physics AS CR, Praha, Czech Republic
2Microelectronics and Materials Physics Laboratories, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
3A.F. Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia
Email: dejneka@fzu.cz
Поступила в редакцию: 22 декабря 2009 г.
Выставление онлайн: 19 сентября 2010 г.

Effect of biaxial tensile strains on optical function and band edge transitions of ultra thin epitaxial films was studied using as an example a 13 nm thick SrTiO3 films deposited on KTaO3 (100) single-crystal substrates. Optical functions in the 200-1200 nm spectral range were determined by spectroscopic ellipsometry technique. It was found that tensile strains result in a shift of the low energy band gap optical transitions to higher energies and decrease the refractive index in the visible region. Comparison of the optical spectra for strained SrTiO3 films and for homoepitaxial strain-free SrTiO3 : Cr (0.01 at.%) films deposited on SrTiO3 (100) single crystalline substrates showed that this "blue" shift of the band gap could not be related to technological imperfections or to reduced thickness. The observed effect is connected with changes in the lowest conduction and in the top valence bands that are due to increase of the in-plane lattice constant and/or onset of the polar phase in the tensile strain-induced ultra-thin epitaxial SrTiO3 films. This work was supported by Grants 1M06002 of MSMT v CR, KAN 301370701, and AV0Z10100522 of AV v CR, GACR 202/08/1009, Academy of Finland (N 118250), Sc. Sch.-4587.2010.2, and Program of Presidium RAS "Quantum phys. of condensed matter".