Nanostructure of a vicinal surface of SrTiO3: Order on two length scales

Grazing incidence x-ray diffraction, combined with low energy electron diffraction and scanning tunneling microscopy shows that annealed SrTiO3(103) surfaces exhibit regular nanostructures on two length scales with shorter (∼1.2 nm) ripples bunching to longer (∼7.4 nm) waves, corresponding to six SrTiO3(103) unit cells. The surface, wavy in the [100] direction, exhibits SrO and TiO2 terminated 'steps'. Lateral relaxations along the [010] direction of the unit cell lead to a weak (1x2) reconstruction. Electrostatic forces are thought to be responsible for the observed surface morphology