(Georgia Institute of Technology, 1995)
Wang, Z. L. (Zhong Lin); Shapiro, Alexander
Lanthanum-aluminate (LaAlO₃) is one of the optimum substrates for epitaxic growth of thin
oxide films. In this paper, the structures of the {100} and {110} surfaces of annealed LaAlO₃ are
studied using reflection electron microscopy (REM). [010] and [001] steps have been observed
on {100}, these are believed to be the lowest surface energy steps. The {100} surface is
atomically flat, but the {110} surfaces exhibit high-density fine structures distributed on large
surface terraces. These fine structures may correspond to the formation of small width (100) and
(010) facets on the (110) surface. The 5x5 reconstruction is observed on {100}. No
reconstruction is found on {110}.