Epitaxial growth of praseodymium oxide on silicon

Praseodymium oxide is a potential high-K dielectric with promising electrical properties. Here, we present results for crystalline growth of praseodymium oxide on Si. On Si(001) surfaces, crystalline Pr2O3 grows as (110) domains, with two orthogonal in-plane orientations. Epitaxial silicon overgrowth seems to be impossible. We obtain perfect epitaxial growth on Si(111). These layers can also be overgrown epitaxially with silicon. All layer growth experiments were performed using solid source molecular beam epitaxy. In addition, the initial stages of growth were studied by scanning tunneling microscopy.