Electronic Structure Investigations of Metal / SrtiO3 Interfaces Using EELS

Abstract Ni, Pd and Cr thin films were grown on (100)SrTiO3 surfaces by molecular beam epitaxy at substrate temperatures of TNJ, pd=650°C and Tcr =150°C. Electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) were applied to investigate the local electronic structure and the atomic structure of the interfaces, respectively. Analytical microscopy was carried out with a parallel energy-loss spectrometer (PEELS766) attached to a dedicated scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) operated at 100keV, which has a point resolution of 0.22 nm. HRTEM studies were performed on a Jeol JEM ARM 1250 operated at 1250keV (0.12 nm point resolution). Conventional TEM and HRTEM experiments showed epitaxial orientation relationships between the thin metal films and the substrate for each interface. The electronic structure of the interfaces in terms of the site- and symmetry projected density of states (PDOS) above the Fermi-level can be extracted from the electron energy-loss near-edge structures (ELNES).