Abstract of Molecular beam epitaxy of SrTiO3 on Si(001) : early stages of the growth and strain relaxation   Molecular beam epitaxy of SrTiO3 on Si(001) : early stages of the growth and strain relaxation NIU G. , SAINT-GIRONS G., VILQUIN B., DELHAYE G., MAURICE J.L., BOTELLA C., ROBACH Y., HOLLINGER G. Applied Physics Letters 062902 95 (2009) Full pdf The molecular beam epitaxy of SrTiO3 (STO) layers on Si (001) is studied, focusing on the early stages of the growth and on the strain relaxation process. Evidence is given that even for optimized growth conditions, STO grows initially amorphous on silicon and recrystallizes, leading to the formation of an atomically abrupt heterointerface with silicon. Just after recrystallization, STO is partially strained. Further increase of its thickness leads to the onset of a progressive plastic relaxation mechanism. STO recovers its bulk lattice parameter for thicknesses of the order of 30 monolayers.