title: High-quality EuO thin films the easy way via topotactic transformation.
abstract: Epitaxy is widely employed to create highly oriented crystalline films. A less appreciated, but nonetheless powerful means of creating such films is via topotactic transformation, in which a chemical reaction transforms a single crystal of one phase into a single crystal of a different phase, which inherits its orientation from the original crystal. Topotactic reactions may be applied to epitactic films to substitute, add or remove ions to yield epitactic films of different phases. Here we exploit a topotactic reduction reaction to provide a non-ultra-high vacuum (UHV) means of growing highly oriented single crystalline thin films of the easily over-oxidized half-metallic semiconductor europium monoxide (EuO) with a perfection rivalling that of the best films of the same material grown by molecular-beam epitaxy or UHV pulsed-laser deposition. As the technique only requires high-vacuum deposition equipment, it has the potential to drastically improve the accessibility of high-quality single crystalline films of EuO as well as other difficult-to-synthesize compounds.
authors.affiliation: Zentrum für Elektronische Korrelationen und Magnetismus, Universität Augsburg, Universitätsstraße 1, 86159 Augsburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mairoser
authors.affiliation: School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
authors.forename: Julia A
authors.identifier: 0000000184540124
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Mundy
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Melville
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hodash
authors.affiliation: School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cueva
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Held
authors.affiliation: Quantum Condensed Matter Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA.
authors.forename: Artur
authors.identifier: 000000034951235X
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Glavic
authors.affiliation: Peter Grünberg Institute, PGI 9-IT, JARA-FIT, Research Centre Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.identifier: 0000000301856794
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schubert
authors.affiliation: 1] School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA. [2] Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Muller
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA. [2] Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
authors.forename: Darrell G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Schlom
authors.affiliation: Zentrum für Elektronische Korrelationen und Magnetismus, Universität Augsburg, Universitätsstraße 1, 86159 Augsburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schmehl