No Arabic abstract
Strain engineering with different substrate facets is promising for tuning functional properties of thin film perovskite oxides. By choice of facet, different surface symmetries and chemical bond directions for epitaxial interfaces can be tailored. Here, preparation of well-defined pseudo-cubic (111)-oriented orthorhombic substrates of DyScO3 , GdScO3 , and NdGaO3 is reported. The choice of orthorhombic facet, (011)o or (101)o , both corresponding to pseudo-cubic (111)pc , gives vicinal surfaces with single or double (111pc layer terrace step heights, respectively, impacting subsequent thin film growth. Orthorhombic LaFeO3 epitaxy on the (101)o facet reveals a distinction between alternating (111)pc layers, both during and after growth. The observed differences are explained based on the oxygen octahedral tilt pattern relative to the two orthorhombic (111)pc surfaces. This robust structural detail in the orthorhombic perovskite oxides enables utilisation of different (111)pc facets for property engineering, through polyhedral connectivity control and cation coordination at epitaxial interfaces.
Growth of perovskite oxide thin films on Si in crystalline form has long been a critical obstacle for the integration of multifunctional oxides into Si-based technologies. In this study, we propose pulsed laser deposition of a crystalline SrTiO3 thin film on a Si using graphene substrate. The SrTiO3 thin film on graphene has a highly (00l)-oriented crystalline structure which results from the partial epitaxy. Moreover, graphene promotes a sharp interface by highly suppressing the chemical intermixing. The important role of graphene as a 2D substrate and diffusion barrier allows expansion of device applications based on functional complex oxides.
We report a scalable approach to synthesize a large-area (up to 4 mm) thin black phosphorus (BP) film on a flexible substrate. We first deposited a red phosphorus (RP) thin-film on a flexible polyester substrate, followed by its conversion to BP in a high-pressure multi-anvil cell at room temperature. Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy measurements confirmed the formation of a nano-crystalline BP thin-film with a thickness of around 40 nm. Optical characterization indicates a bandgap of around 0.28 eV in the converted BP, similar to the bandgap measured in exfoliated thin-films. Thin-film BP transistors exhibit a field-effect mobility of around 0.5 cm2/Vs, which can probably be further enhanced by the optimization of the conversion process at elevated temperatures. Our work opens the avenue for the future demonstration of large-scale, high quality thin-film black phosphorus.
We report the first observation of coherent surface states on cubic perovskite oxide SrVO3(001) thin films through spectroscopic imaging scanning tunneling microscopy. A direct link between the observed atomic-scale interference patterns and the formation of a dxy-derived surface state is supported by first-principles calculations. Furthermore, we show that the apical oxygens on the topmost VO2 plane play a critical role in controlling the spectral weight of the observed coherent surface state.
Epitaxial 200nm BiFe$_{0.95}$Mn$_{0.05}$O$_{3}$ (BFO) film was grown by pulsed laser deposition on (111) oriented SrTiO3 substrate buffered with a 50nm thick SrRuO$_{3}$ electrode. The BFO thin film shows a rhombohedral structure and a large remnant polarization of Pr = 104 $mu$C/cm$^{2}$. By comparing I(V) characteristics with different conduction models we reveal the presence of both bulk limited Poole-Frenkel and Schottky interface mechanisms and each one dominates in a specific range of temperature. At room temperature and under 10mW laser illumination, the as grown BFO film presents short-circuit current density (Jsc) and open circuit voltage (Voc) of 2.25mA/cm$^{2}$ and -0.55V respectively. This PV effect can be switched by applying positive voltage pulses higher than the coercive field. For low temperatures a large Voc value of about -4.5V (-225kV/cm) is observed which suggests a bulk non-centrosymmetric origin of the PV response.
Multiferroic BiFeO3 (BFO) thin film exhibiting desired ferroelectric and enhanced magnetic properties was grown on La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 (LSMO) buffered Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si substrates by off-axis RF magnetic sputtering, where a highly (111)-oriented texture was obtained. The BFO/LSMO thin film exhibits excellent ferroelectric and dielectric behaviors (2Pr ~210.7 {mu}C/cm2, 2Ec~435 kV/cm, {epsilon}r ~116.8, and tan{delta} ~ 2.7% at 1 kHz), together with a long fatigue endurance up to 1010 switching cycles at amplitude of 300 kV/cm. An enhancement in magnetic behavior was also observed with Ms=89.5 emu/cm3, which is largely contributed from the magnetic layer of LSMO. The coexistence of ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties in the double layered BFO/LSMO thin film makes it a promising candidate system for applications where the magnetoelectric behavior is required.