No Arabic abstract
We investigate lanthanum (La) as an n-type dopant in the strain-stabilized tetragonal phase of SrSnO3 grown on GdScO3 (110) using a radical-based hybrid molecular beam epitaxy approach. Fully coherent, epitaxial films with atomically smooth film surface were obtained irrespective of doping density. By combining secondary ion mass spectroscopy and Hall measurements, we demonstrate that each La atom contributes to one electron to the film confirming it occupies Sr-site in SrSnO3 and that it is completely activated. Carrier density exceeding 1 x 10^20 cm-3 was achieved in LSSO films, which is in excellent agreement with the dopant-solubility limit predicted by the density functional theory calculations. A record-high room-temperature mobility of 70 cm2V-1s-1 at 1 x 10^20 cm-3 was obtained in 12 nm La-doped SrSnO3 film making this the thinnest perovskite oxide semiconductor with a reasonably high electron mobility at room temperature. We discuss the structure-dopant-transport property relationships providing essential knowledge for the design of electronic devices using these materials.
BaSnO_{3}, a high mobility perovskite oxide, is an attractive material for oxide-based electronic devices. However, in addition to low-field mobility, high-field transport properties such as the saturation velocity of carriers play a major role in determining device performance. We report on the experimental measurement of electron saturation velocity in La-doped BaSnO_{3} thin films for a range of doping densities. Predicted saturation velocities based on a simple LO-phonon emission model using an effective LO phonon energy of 120 meV show good agreement with measurements of velocity saturation in La-doped BaSnO_{3} films.. Density-dependent saturation velocity in the range of 1.6x10^{7} cm/s reducing to 2x10^{6} cm/s is predicted for {delta}-doped BaSnO3 channels with carrier densities ranging from 10^{13} cm^{-2} to 2x10^{14} cm^{-2} respectively. These results are expected to aid the informed design of BaSnO3 as the active material for high-charge density electronic transistors.
Doping ferroelectric Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 with La is a promising route to improve endurance. However, the beneficial effect of La on the endurance of polycrystalline films may be accompanied by degradation of the retention. We have investigated the endurance - retention dilemma in La-doped epitaxial films. Compared to undoped epitaxial films, large values of polarization are obtained in a wider thickness range, whereas the coercive fields are similar, and the leakage current is substantially reduced. Compared to polycrystalline La-doped films, epitaxial La-doped films show more fatigue but there is not significant wake-up effect and endurance-retention dilemma. The persistent wake-up effect common to polycrystalline La-doped Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 films, is limited to a few cycles in epitaxial films. Despite fatigue, endurance in epitaxial La-doped films is more than 1010 cycles, and this good property is accompanied by excellent retention of more than 10 years. These results demonstrate that wake-up effect and endurance-retention dilemma are not intrinsic in La-doped Hf0.5Zr0.5O2.
La-doped SrSnO3 (LSSO) is known as one of deep-ultraviolet (DUV)-transparent conducting oxides with an energy bandgap of ~4.6 eV. Since LSSO can be grown heteroepitaxially on more wide bandgap substrates such as MgO (Eg ~7.8 eV), LSSO is considered to be a good candidate as a DUV-transparent electrode. However, the electrical conductivity of LSSO films are below 1000 S cm^-1, most likely due to the low solubility of La ion in the LSSO lattice. Here we report that high electrically conducting (>3000 S cm^-1) LSSO thin films with an energy bandgap of ~4.6 eV can be fabricated by pulsed laser deposition on MgO substrate followed by a simple annealing in vacuum. From the X-ray diffraction and the scanning transmission electron microscopy analyses, we found that lateral grain growth occurred during the annealing, which improved the activation rate of La ion, leading to a significant improvement of carrier concentration (3.26 x 10^20 cm^-3) and Hall mobility (55.8 cm^2 V^-1 s^-1). The present DUV-transparent oxide semiconductor would be useful as a transparent electrode for developing optoelectronic devices, which transmit and/or emit DUV-light.
We present an ab initio study of dopant-dopant interactions in beryllium-doped InGaAs. We consider defect formation energies of various interstitial and substitutional defects and their combinations. We find that all substitutional-substitutional interactions can be neglected. On the other hand, interactions involving an interstitial defect are significant. Specially, interstitial Be is stabilized by about 0.9/1.0 eV in the presence of one/two BeGa substitutionals. Ga interstitial is also substantially stabilized by Be interstitials. Two Be interstitials can form a metastable Be-Be-Ga complex with a dissociation energy of 0.26 eV/Be. Therefore, interstitial defects and defect-defect interactions should be considered in accurate models of Be doped InGaAs. We suggest that In and Ga should be treated as separate atoms and not lumped into a single effective group III element, as has been done before. We identified dopant-centred states which indicate the presence of other charge states at finite temperatures, specifically, the presence of Beint+1 (as opposed to Beint+2 at 0K).
Electrodynamic properties of La-doped SrTiO3 thin films with controlled elemental vacancies have been investigated using optical spectroscopy and thermopower measurement. In particular, we observed a correlation between the polaron formation and thermoelectric properties of the transition metal oxide (TMO) thin films. With decreasing oxygen partial pressure during the film growth (P(O2)), a systematic lattice expansion was observed along with the increased elemental vacancy and carrier density, experimentally determined using optical spectroscopy. Moreover, we observed an absorption in the mid-infrared photon energy range, which is attributed to the polaron formation in the doped SrTiO3 system. Thermopower of the La-doped SrTiO3 thin films could be largely modulated from -120 to -260 {mu}V K-1, reflecting an enhanced polaronic mass of ~3 < mpolron/m < ~4. The elemental vacancies generated in the TMO films grown at various P(O2) influences the global polaronic transport, which governs the charge transport behavior, including the thermoelectric properties.