Influence of the oxidation state of SrTiO3 plasmas for stoichiometric growth of pulsed laser deposition films identified by laser induced fluorescence

By applying two-dimensional laser induced fluorescence (LIF) on multiple plasma constituents, we are able to directly link the oxidation of plasma species in a SrTiO3 plasma for pulsed laser deposition to the stoichiometry and quality of the thin films grown. With spatiotemporal LIF mapping of the plasma species in different background gas compositions, we find that Ti and Sr have to be fully oxidized for a stoichiometric growth of crystalline thin films, which gives new input for modeling surface growth, as well as provides additional control over the exact degree of stoichiometry of thin films.