Combined pulsed laser deposition and non-contact atomic force microscopy system for studies of insulator metal oxide thin films.

We have designed and developed a combined system of pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and non-contact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM) for observations of insulator metal oxide surfaces. With this system, the long-period iterations of sputtering and annealing used in conventional methods for preparing a metal oxide film surface are not required. The performance of the combined system is demonstrated for the preparation and high-resolution NC-AFM imaging of atomically flat thin films of anatase TiO2 (001) and LaAlO3 (100).