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Sub-monolayer nucleation and growth of complex oxide heterostructures at high supersaturation and rapid flux modulation

We report on the non-trivial nanoscale kinetics of the deposition of novel complex oxide heterostructures composed of a unit-cell thick correlated metal LaNiO3 and dielectric LaAlO3. The multilayers demonstrate exceptionally good crystallinity and surface morphology maintained over the large number of layers, as confirmed by AFM, RHEED, and synchrotron X-ray diffraction. To elucidate the physics behind the growth, the temperature of the substrate and the deposition rate were varied over a wide range and the results were treated in the framework of a two-layer model. These results are of fundamental importance for synthesis of new phases of complex oxide heterostructures.