Epitaxial growth by pulsed laser deposition of Er-doped Sc2O3 films on sesquioxides monitored in situ by reflection high energy electron diffraction

In this letter, the authors report on the epitaxial growth by pulsed laser deposition of Sc2O3 and Er(5%):Sc2O3 films on {100} and {111} oriented Sc2O3. They observed layer-by-layer growth in the orientation defined by the substrate. This was indicated by reflection high energy electron diffraction as intensity oscillations of the specularly reflected electron beam. A monolayer-smooth film surface was observed by atomic force microscopy. Such a growth behavior was also achieved during initial growth of Sc2O3 on {100} oriented Y2O3. Additional x-ray diffraction analysis shows good agreement with the growth behavior mentioned above