%0 Journal Article
%K Pulsed laser deposition
%K Electrical resistivity
%K Lasers
%K Perovskite
%K Substrates
%K Laser deposition
%K Film growth
%K Single crystals
%K Thin film devices
%K Strontium
%K Strontium compounds
%K Strontium alloys
%K Strontium titanate
%K Secondary emission
%K Secondary ion mass spectrometry
%K Electric conductivity
%K SrTiO
%K In situ characterization
%K Back-gate
%K Crystal substrates
%K Functional oxides
%K Generic method
%K Secondary ion mass spectroscopy
%K Substrate resistance
%K Thermodynamic conditions
%K Thin film material
%K Mass spectrometers
%K Programmable logic controllers
%A M.L Scullin
%A J Ravichandran
%A C Yu
%A M Huijben
%A J Seidel
%A A Majumdar
%A Ramamoorthy Ramesh
%B Acta Materialia
%D 2010
%G eng
%P 457-463
%R 10.1016/j.actamat.2009.09.024
%T Pulsed laser deposition-induced reduction of SrTiO3 crystals
%V 58
%X We report a generic method for fast and efficient reduction of strontium titanate (SrTiO3, STO) single crystals by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) of thin-films. The reduction was largely independent of the thin-film material deposited on the crystals. It is shown that thermodynamic conditions (450 °C, 10-7 torr, 10-60 min), which normally reduce STO (0 0 1) substrates to roughly 5 nm into a crystal substrate, can reduce the same crystals throughout their 500 μm thickness when coupled with the PLD. In situ characterization of the STO substrate resistance during thin-film growth is presented. This process opens up the possibility of employing STO substrates as a back-gate in functional oxide devices. © 2009 Acta Materialia Inc.