Analysis of Reflection High-Energy Electron Diffraction Data of Heteroepitaxial Chromium Oxide Growth on Aluminum Oxide

Antiferromagnetic materials, such as chromium oxide (Cr2O3), are a class of materials that have garnered attention recently in the field of spintronics, due to their robustness against stray magnetic fields and ultrafast spin dynamics. To realize their full potential, a deep understanding of their properties in thin film form is crucial. We grow high quality epitaxial Cr2O3 on aluminum oxide substrates using pulsed laser deposition and use Reflection High-Energy Electron Diffraction (RHEED) to monitor film growth and assess film quality. Thus, gathering RHEED data can help us quantify how growth parameters affect quality. However, the analysis of RHEED data can be time-consuming and subject to human error. To address this challenge, we have developed a python-based automated tool using multimodal peak fitting to rapidly extract lattice constant, and potentially other parameters from diffraction maxima. From this analysis, we found that the lattice quickly relaxed to that of bulk Cr2O3. By optimizing RHEED analysis, we dramatically increased our capacity of heteroepitaxial Cr2O3 growth data that could be analyzed, allowing us to gather more data during growth. In this presentation, we will discuss the principles of RHEED and demonstrate the capabilities of our analysis software. We will also present results on the growth and characterization of high quality Cr2O3 thin films.