Spontaneous orientation-tuning driven by the strain variation in self-assembled ZnO-SrRuO3 heteroepitaxy

Heteroepitaxial ZnO and SrRuO3 were grown on SrTiO3 (111) substrates and formed a self-assembled wurtzite-perovskite nanostructure. Spontaneous orientation-tuning of the SrRuO3 pillars was observed, with the growth direction changing from [111](SRO) to [011](SRO) as the film thickness increased, which is attributed to a misfit strain transition from the biaxial strain imposed by the SrTiO3 substrate to the vertical strain provided by the ZnO matrix. The [011]-SrRuO3 and [0001]-ZnO combination presents a favorable matching in the nanocomposite films, resulting in higher charge carrier mobility. This vertically integrated configuration and regulation on the crystallographic orientations are expected to be employed in designing multi-functional nanocomposite systems for applications in electronic devices.