Growth of strain-induced self-assembled BaZrO3 nanodots from chemical solutions

A methodology of preparing artificially nanostructured oxide templates by means of chemical solution deposition is presented. Controlled generation of strain-induced self-assembled BaZrO3 nanodots have been achieved using diluted metal–organic solutions. We show how nanodots’ size and density can be finely tuned through control of growth parameters as well as solution concentration. We show that lattice steps in vicinal substrates are preferential nucleation sites. The results prove that chemical solution deposition method is a promising technique for the nanostructuration of large-area oxide templates.