Electronic structure and metal-insulator transition in LaNiO$_{3}$ ultrathin films grown on LaAlO$_{3}$ substrates from separate oxide targets using laser MBE

Here we report on a novel approach of growing ultrathin LaNiO$_{3}$ films on LaAlO$_{3}$ substrate one atomic layer at a time using laser MBE with La$_{2}$O$_{3}$ and NiO targets. Reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) spot intensity was used as the main technique to control stoichiometry and growth rate of alternating atomic layers with both LaO and NiO$_{2}$ surface termination. We studied the change in the thickness-dependent electronic structure of LaNiO$_{3}$ films across the metal-insulator transition. The techniques used in this study were the combination of temperature-dependent transport measurements, x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and x-ray linear dichroism (XLD) at the Ni $L_{3,2}$ and O $K$ absorption edges. We will report on the effect of the growth technique on electronic structure of this material.