%0 Journal Article
%A Varela Del Arco, María
%A Grogger, W.
%A Arias Serna, Diego
%A Sefrioui, Zouhair
%A León Yebra, Carlos
%A Ballesteros, C.
%A Frishnan, K.M.
%A Santamaría Sánchez-Barriga, Jacobo
%T Direct evidence for block-by-block growth in high-temperature superconductor ultrathin films
%D 2001
%@ 0031-9007
%U https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/59638
%X Charge neutrality and stoichiometry impose severe restrictions on the mechanisms of epitaxial growth of complex oxides. The fundamental question arises of what is the minimum growth unit when sample thickness is reduced beyond the size of the unit cell. We have investigated the growth mechanism of YBa_(2)Cu_(3)O_(7) cuprate superconductor, using a consistent approach based on the growth of noninteger numbers of YBa_(2)Cu_(3)O_(7) layers in YBa_(2)Cu_(3)O_(7)/PrBa_(2)Cu_(3)O_(7) superlattices. Ex situ chemical and structural analysis evidence a 2D block-by-block mechanism in which the minimum growth units are complete unit cell blocks, growing coherently over large lateral distances.
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