Enhanced surface diffusion through termination conversion during epitaxial SrRuO3 growth

During the initial growth of the ferromagnetic oxide SrRuO3 on TiO2-terminated SrTiO3, we observe a self-organized conversion of the terminating atomic layer from RuO2 to SrO. This conversion induces an abrupt change in growth mode from layer by layer to growth by step advancement, indicating a large enhancement of the surface diffusivity. This growth mode enables the growth of single-crystalline and single-domain thin films. Both conversion and the resulting growth mode enable the control of the interface properties in heteroepitaxial multilayer structures on an atomic level.