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UBC Theses and Dissertations

The growth of novel thin film oxides : calibrations, preliminary growths and quantitative characterizations Wicks, Ryan Christopher

Abstract

In this thesis, preliminary growths of SrCu0₂ epitaxial films were undertaken. Despite none of the growths yielding the desired stoichiometry or oxidation, the difficulties that were encountered, such as properly oxidizing the film, are demonstrated to be surmountable. The structure of the films was probed with RHEED, and found to display growth patterns that are consistent with epitaxial growth. The desire to perform future ARPES studies on this material imposes strict sample quality requirements and the need for the most accurate measurements of stoichiometry possible. This warranted an investigation of the properties of the SPECS PHOIBOS 150 hemispherical electron analyzer used to perform XPS measurements of films chemistry. The degree of non-linearity of the electron detection system was determined and a method introduced that could correct for it. Correcting for the transmission function of the analyzer was found to be a necessary step in quantitative chemical analysis. Therefore, transmission functions were measured using two techniques and were found to be in good agreement with calculated transmission functions provided by SPECS. While correcting for detector non-linearity and measuring the actual transmission function did not drastically alter the stoichiometry measurements for scans taken using reasonable analyzer settings for XPS (1% for the films grown in this thesis, mostly from detector non-linearity), it is possible to drive the analyzer into regimes where the corrections will be necessary. The methods used to first correct for the intensity response of the analyzer, and then the transmission function would be more applicable in these instances. The work performed in this thesis will ensure that future growths of SrCu0₂ films will yield samples of adequate quality to perform an ARPES study.

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