Abstract
Scanning tunneling microscopy suggests that epitaxial thin films grow unit cell by unit cell, by a terraced-island-growth mode. Although films grown at low temperatures exhibit a spiral-growth surface microstructure, films with high critical current densities (grown at high temperatures on nearly-lattice-matched substrates) do not. The terraced microstructure explains the steps found in ultrathin layers in / superlattices. These steps may act as superconducting weak links, providing support for Josephson-coupled-array models of superconducting superlattices.
- Received 10 June 1991
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.44.9760
©1991 American Physical Society