Abstract
We synthesized MgO/TiOx ceramics superlattices of the combination of various thicknesses of TiOx layers and MgO layers on MgO(100) single crystal substrates by a pulsed-molecular-evaporation method; this is a novel reactive deposition method using a pulsed molecular beam source of oxygen. We determined the structure of TiOx, the periodicity and the interface structure of the superlattices by means of reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). XRD analysis revealed that TiOx takes the form of pseudomorphic anatase effected by the substrate. TiOx grew in the form of c-axial orientated islands from the first unit layer. MgO deposited on TiOx layer grew epitaxially from a few angstrom of the deposition and recovered the smooth surface; as was confirmed by the observation of RHEED and AFM. On the basis of this interesting growth mechanism, superlattices could be composed by materials having different crystal forms like TiOx and MgO.
