Single crystalline highly epitaxial Pt thin films on (001) SrTiO3

(001) oriented Pt thin films with excellent single crystal quality were epitaxially grown on (001) SrTiO3. The interface relationship was determined and shown to be (001)(Pt)parallel to(001)(STO) and [100](Pt)parallel to[100](STO). Two unexpected transitions were found at 138 and 34 K in the evolution of resistivity with temperature as the samples were heated up, which can probably be attributed to phase transitions of the single crystalline SrTiO3. The fact that epitaxial (001) Pt film growth is observed under oxygen plasma is believed to be a result of oxygen ashing of S-containing impurities in the Pt target. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.