Figure 2: The effect of temperature and oxygen pressure on the formation of Ir nanopillars in SrTiO3.

Deposition conditions of Ir(5%):SrTiO3 films (red circles) together with vapour pressure plots of binary oxides and Ir metal15,16. The black line marks the Ir Ellingham curve17. Ir metal nanopillars formed in the region encircled with the dotted line. The AFM imaging area was 1 × 1 μm2. The film thickness was 20 nm for all samples.