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arXiv · 2408.08996

How to cleave cubic perovskite oxides

Igor Sokolović·Michael Schmid·Ulrike Diebold·Martin Setvín
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Abstract

Surfaces of cubic perovskite oxides attract significant attention for their physical tunability and high potential for technical applications. Bulk-terminated surfaces are desirable for theoretical modelling and experimental reproducibility, yet there is a lack of methods for preparing such well-defined surfaces. We discuss a method for strain-assisted cleaving of perovskite single crystals, using a setup easily transferable between different experimental systems. The details of the cleaving device and the procedure were optimized in a systematic study on the model SrTiO$_3$. The large-area morphology and typical distribution of surface terminations on cleaved SrTiO$_3$(001) is presented, with specific guidelines on how to distinguish well-cleaved surfaces from conchoidally fractured ones. The cleaving is applicable to other cubic perovskites, as demonstrated on KTaO$_3$(001) and BaTiO$_3$(001). This approach opens up a pathway for obtaining high-quality surfaces of this promising class of materials.

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Igor Sokolović, Michael Schmid, Ulrike Diebold, Martin Setvín. 2024-08-16. How to cleave cubic perovskite oxides. https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.08996

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